Water and Fire: Making it Work
by lokfanatics
Summary: Zuko has now joined "The Gaang" at the Western Air Temple. Follow the stories of how Katara and Zuko should have had a lot more bonding and interactions during this part in Season 3. Things are heated at first but will eventually become "steamy" with this strong and independent watertribe girl and hot tempered prince. I gladly present: Making it Work. Image belongs to: vindictev
1. Chapter 1

Glancing over my shoulder, I could see Zuko walking over to who knows where. Not like I care where he goes. I don't even _want _him here. Why did they all agree to let Zuko come into the group, or "The Gaang" as Sokka calls it( I still don't think that name will catch on). Of all people, Zuko has to teach Aang, well I guess it really was our only choice, we are all obviously desperate to get Aang a firebending teacher, and he really is the only one besides Jeong Jeong who isn't trying to capture and or destroy Aang. I still don't trust him, I don't think I ever will, and rest assured I _will _end him if he even thinks about hurting him. Sighing, I waterbend some water from the fountain into the bucket and carry it over to our stuff.

"Katara what do you plan on making lunch? I'm starving!"

I eye Sokka, and I think he gets the message of how annoyed I am still and he walks towards Haru. What am I going to make? Not many food sources around here, plus I'm cooking for eight (not to mention Momo and Appa) now instead of our original group of four.

"Aang, do you think there are any type of edible plants here still?" He turns around, that goofy kid from the iceberg, I haven't noticed it much but he really has grown a lot, mentally and physically, almost catching up to my height in fact.

" I'm not sure, but I don't mind looking! Do you know where Sokka, Toph, and the others are?"

"Well I'm pretty sure I saw Sokka going off with Haru. Toph and The Duke went off a while ago as well, and Theo.. I actually have no idea." Of course I purposely skipped Zuko, because I don't care what he's doing.

Aang nods and grabs his glider and begins to jog off when he makes an abrupt turn back. "Oh! What about-"

I cut him off mid-sentence, because I know he's going to ask me where Zuko is. "I don't know where Zuko is!" I basically shout it, and he is taken back. Feeling guilty I simply shrug it off and bend water into a pot, while Aang takes off.

Maybe sitting with my knees up, head buried in my arms gave the wrong message because I hear Zuko mutter something, but it is barely audible.

"What!" I snap at him and whip my head over my shoulder, I will admit I was startled with how quietly he came. I can tell he's trying though, but after everything he's done, it all just feels like a set up to me. Zuko seems offended with the way his eyebrows are furrowed but I just ignore it and wait impatiently for his answer which seems to take an eternity.

"I asked, if you need help boiling the water." His face is plain when he talks, as if he has no emotion at all.

I stare at him, long and hard. Suddenly I'm filled with rage. He must take me for someone who's weak, I'm practically a master waterbender, I'm totally capable of boiling the water myself. And that is exactly what I say.

"I'm capable of boiling the water myself, you probably didn't know because firebender's, like _you _are arrogant towards everyone and everything else that doesn't have to do with your nation!" I'm not sure why I take it that far but I'm really offended that he still thinks of me as the girl who struggled with the waterwhip!

He frowns at me. "Forget it!" Zuko storms up the stairs leading to his room, when he said that his hands were bawled into fists and when he started to walk they released the flames.

I roll my eyes. "So dramatic." I'm too busy mumbling things under my breath to notice Sokka, and the others returning. They place different fruits in front of me, and of course the ever famous leechee nuts, geez these things are everywhere.

"This is all we could find for now, do you think you can manage with this?" Aang looks to me with a sincere smile. I know he can tell I'm still angry with Zuko being here, and is taking extra precaution when it comes to talking with me.

I smile at him, of course I don't want the others to think I'm mad at them. "I think I can make something work." Standing up I gather the different foods and pick up a knife to cut. I finish in about 10 minutes and begin to hand out a small bowl with equal portions.

"I'm so sick of fruit! I miss meat!" Sokka shouts as I place a bowl by him. I laugh to myself and move on to Toph.

"Where's Zuko?" She asks when I finally reach her. The name still bugs me, but I need to get used to it. Ignoring the question I place one final bowl by Momo and gather a handful of fruits and nuts for Appa.

Looking towards the stairs I groan. "I'll be back." Two more bowls left. Mine, and Zuko's. Everyone's engaged in conversation, I was hoping someone would offer to take it up, but it's obviously going to be me. I grab the bowl and walk past Appa, petting him before I make my way up the stairs.

"Uncle, I know this is what I should be doing, this is the right path. You know, I'm usually annoyed with your sayings and advice, but I could really use some right now!" I hear him chuckle and I peek into the room. He's holding a picture, in which I can assume is Iroh. "This is definitely a big step for me, I'm just hoping I don't screw it up, I can be such a failure." I glance away for a moment feeling a guilt a tad built guilty, I almost feel sorry for the guy. Almost. He's done talking now and is kind of just standing there.

"Uh, Lunch." My voice is kind of shaky, and I hope I don't come off as scared. He turns around and looks down at the bowl, and I swear I almost see a smile form on his face. I hold out the bowl, and beg the spirits that my hands don't start shaking, but strangely, they don't.

"Thanks." He mutters again, but this time I can tell what he said. Zuko takes the bowl from my hands carefully, as if one wrong move could set me off, which it could, maybe. I turn around and begin to head out. Walking past his room I hear him say one more thing.

"Uncle, I think I'll be alright."

**The first of many chapters. I love Zutara and I really want to try and keep the characters true to them themselves and avoid OOC. Please review, constructive criticism and ideas are always welcomed. **


	2. Chapter 2

My eyes snap open when I hear footsteps close to me, or at least I think they're close. Lifting my head up slightly, I squint at the figure and try to find out who it is. Maybe it's Haru? The figure is quite tall so I assume it is until I hear snoring and look back to the group and see that the snore came from Haru himself. "Sokka, Aang, Toph, Theo, Haru, The Duke." I mumble quietly the names of those I see. Looking back I remember. It's Zuko.

Standing up, careful not to wake the others I pull my hair into a warriors wolf tail and walk over to see with he's up to. "What are you doing?" My voice comes out groggily and hushed. He turns around to see who snuck up on him then faces the ledge again. Zuko hasn't answered ,and it being so early I'm irritated and begin to ask again when I realize where we are. "You know, it's pretty stupid of you to be sitting on the ledge." His legs were dangling off the cliff, and I hear a harsh laugh escape his mouth.

"Well, I am known for doing stupid things right." Zuko says this in a way that almost makes me wonder what other stupid things he has done in his life. Banished prince, but for what? Guess I'll never know, something else I've always wondered was how he got his scar? I assume it's a touchy subject and even if we were friends, I wouldn't be comfortable asking about it.

"Oh I know." Pausing I wonder why I'm still talking to him? I found out who it was and, oh right what is he doing? "I'm going to ask again, what are you doing?"

"What did I wake you?" He replies so quickly, it almost startles me.

I frown. "No, well actually yes, but why are you up? The sun hasn't even began to rise yet." I look towards the mountains and from living in the South Pole for so long, I was used to it being dark most of the time, and I learned how to tell when the sun would rise again.

"Not sure why I'm up, couldn't sleep I guess."

Seems believable. "Whatever, since you're up you can go and cut up the left over fruits for breakfast." Zuko turns around, raising an eyebrow like he's never worked a day in a life. My words were basically foreign.

"Oh does the poor baby not know how to cut up fruit?" I say in a voice that I didn't believe belonged to me. I didn't say it so it sounded mean, but I said it like I was making fun of him. And truth be told I was. Royals, never working a day in their lives, I just can't imagine what it's like to have everything done for you.

His face is serious again, offended obviously. "I know how to cut."

I say two words. "Prove it." Making a sharp turn I begin walking back towards the cooking supplies and wonder if he is going to come and cut the fruit. I glance back to see him walking close behind me, our eyes meet for a short moment, even in the dark I can still make out his golden eyes that most firenation citizens have.

"Alright here's the knife, there's the fruit, chop chop." No pun intended. He stares at the earth-bent table Toph made and sits down. "I'm going to find some more fruit, this won't feed us all." As I'm walking off he begins to talk.

"Now, _you're _being stupid."

I stop. And whip my head over my shoulder, then my body follows. "What?"

"You're going off to find food in a place you have never been before, you have no idea where you are going, you're going to get lost. His words come out fast, I assume by now he's just a fast talker. I look at him for a moment considering what he said.

"I'm fine, I can handle myself." I start walking again.

I start climbing the stairs and as I get higher up I look to the wall besides me. It's a mosaic, and it's gorgeous. The Airbenders. Looking higher I notice that sky bison flying up over the airbenders. I continue up the stairs to get to level ground and see the whole thing. The airnomads look so peaceful, some are performing airbending while in another scene ,they are making fruit pies. I walk closer to the mosaic and place my hand on it. All these feelings begin to rush over me. First happiness, then disappointment, it would have been wonderful to meet more of Aang's people. But the final feeling that seems to corrupt my entire body is anger. Firelord Sozin did this. This, genocide of such a kind and peaceful people! Then I remember Zuko, he is related to Sozin. It seems like this people really are born bad like Toph said, I can never trust him, I can't. I feel a tear slip down my face, the cause, two things. The nomad's genocide, and the story Hama told me. The SouthernWaterbenders were taken away and kept in confinement. Herself and I left, I wish I could learn more about the southern style. Taking a deep breath I turn to my left and see a few tree's and bushes, this is probably where they got the fruits and nuts.

"Where's Katara?" Coming closer to campgrounds I could tell it was Aang's voice.

"She went to get.. well she's right there." Zuko tilted his head in my direction. I approached the table and was surprised with how well he minced the fruit, placing the fruit on the table, I wait for him to move so I can mince but instead he picks up the knife and begins to cut them into small pieces before I can object.

When he finishes he quietly stands and grabs a few cups and heads to his room. No one bothers asking what he needs it for but he better have it back by the time we begin eating, which will be soon.

Everyone's up now and I pass out the food again and sit down myself. "Where is Zuko? We need those cups." Theo shrugs and begins to eat. A few moments later Zuko comes with a tray containing cups on top of it. He walks over to each of us and hands a cup with steam coming out of it. When he reaches me I hesitate to grab the cup from him but everyone else seems to be enjoying it so I take one as well.

"I picked up a few tea making tips from Uncle. I hope it tastes alright." He looks around to see everyone sipping the tea, and I think he is actually pleased to see that everyone likes the tea.

"This is great!" The Duke exclaims. Toph nods in agreement.

"Pretty good stuff." She sips her tea again.

"This may even be better than meat."

Everyone looks at Sokka to see if he's kidding, and we all laugh knowing he has to be joking. Nothing can taste better than meat to my brother.

Zuko has now taken a seat not too far from me. I catch him looking at me, like he's waiting for my opinion. I sigh.

"It's not bad." I sip again and look away from him. By now he's eating as well and has stopped looking at me.

I lied. It's not just "not bad". It's amazing.

**Another chapter completed. I really am enjoying writing this story, and I hope the few that are reading this now are in to it as well! Review and tell me what you think, constructive criticism is welcomed, as well as ideas! Thanks for reading, be on the look up for more chapters **


	3. Chapter 3

Turning the corner I could hear Sokka's obnoxious laughter coming down the hall. He was wiping a tear from the corner of his eye with one hand, and with the other he was holding on to his stomach.

"Haha! Jerkbending, I gotta remember that one!" I rose my eyebrow is question, but the action only made him laugh harder.

"Are you coming back from Aang's firebending training?" It took him awhile to catch his breath, then he took another second to take a bite from an apple.

"Yeah, but I didn't stay long , those jerkbenders didn't want me watching, in specifics Zuko." He took another bite of his apple and said "jerkbenders" then said something along the lines of "still got it." I chuckle to myself because my brother's jokes were never funny.

I continue walking then hear a frustrated Zuko, turning the final corner I see Aang sitting down on broken statue, making a face that clearly says he has lost interest. Zuko's performing some kind of move in the air and when he flips over to my side he stops immediately. I could swear I saw a small shade of blush appear on his pale cheeks but they disappear when he begins to yell at me.

"Why are you here?" He's standing now, arms crossed, eyes stone cold and concentrated on me. I almost laugh out loud. Zuko's asking why I'm here? If anyone's out of place it's _him. _

"You shouldn't be asking me that. I'm Aang's friend, I've been in this group a lot longer than _you_, and.. and I don't have to explain myself to you!" I try and come off as intimidating but it doesn't work he rolls his eyes and faces Aang. Spirits why is he so sassy!

"Alright, just breathe and.." He shoots his arm forward, hand locked in a fist but only a small flame with smoke at the end to come out.

"That one felt kind of hot." Aang says sitting up from the statue.

"Stop patronizing me! You know what it's supposed to look like!"

Maybe that's why he was blushing? Is he embarrassed of his bending? A better question, why is it not as strong as it used to be? I've seen enough and begin to make my departure.

"Where are you going Katara?"

"Back to base, nothing for me to see here." I reply to Aang then wave back, and when I do Zuko's staring at me, but he doesn't wear an expression. What is with this guy? Such a creep.

Back at our base, I only find Toph there. She picking at her feet, like always. "You know you could at least stop doing that when I come around, you know how that disgusts me!" I sit by her and a bowl of water and begin to bend it carelessly in the air.

"Katara, you really need to try it, like I said there is such a sweet picking sensation to it!" I see her dig through the middle of her pinky toe and flick something out of it. After making a gagging noise she grins, I know she really likes the feeling of it but I know half of that enjoyment comes from everyone else being grossed out. I bend the water back into the bowl and start to prepare dinner.

We started a fire and the group begins to gather around it. As usual I passed around bowls and cups to all before I finally got to sit down. A bowl's untouched and I remember Zuko still hasn't come back from well, from where ever he is. Soon a figure moves closer to our camp and he begins to talk.

"I have some pretty bad news." He pauses. "I lost my stuff."

Toph immediately defends herself. "Don't look at me, I didn't touch your stuff!"

He eyes her then begins again. "I mean my firebending. It's gone."

I start laughing and the whole group looks to me, and Zuko gives me a deadly stare as well.

"I'm sorry, I'm laughing at the irony. Do you know how great it would have been for us if you lost your firebending a long time ago?"

His eyes shift they are more soft and natural than a few moments ago when I laughed. The fire is flicking on his face and he begins to talk again. "Well it's not lost. It's just… weaker for some reason."

"Well, maybe you're just not as good as you think you are."

"Ouch." I look to Toph, feeling angry because she really doesn't know how much he had put us through before he joined us. I guess maybe, the comment was a bit unnecessary but, oh well I already said it.

"I bet it's because I changed sides."

"That's ridiculous." I take a sip of some of the soup I made for dinner then turn to Aang as he starts to talk.

"I don't know maybe it isn't, maybe your firebending comes from rage, and you just don't have enough anger to fuel it like you used to." He seems serious with this answer, but I'm still not buying it.

Sokka stands up and I'm sure he's up to some terrible scheme. "Sooo all we have to do is make Zuko angry! Easy enough!" He grabs his sword's case and begins to poke Zuko on the head. I start to question why Zuko has let it Sokka do that for so long when he suddenly begins to shout.

"Okay! Cut it out! Look even if you're right I don't want to rely on hate and anger anymore. There has to be another way." Sokka now takes a seat by Toph who is now talking about finding the original source of firebending. It is then followed by a stupid comment by Sokka who thinks Zuko should jump into a volcano. Well actually, maybe that isn't a bad idea, I smile to myself then realize Toph is talking about how the badgermoles taught her earthbending one day when she ran away.

"That amazing Toph, I learned from the monks but the original airbenders were the skybisons." He leans back and talks again. "Maybe you can give me a lesson sometime buddy?"

We find out the original firebenders were the dragons, but they're now extinct. Zuko and Aang walk over to the edge and he also tells us about the ancient sun warriors who were in fact the first people to learn firebending from them, but of course they died off as well. Zuko believes that "poking around their ruins" will teach them something. Oh it better teach them something, because I don't just want him sticking around if he has not purpose doing so.

…

It's been over a day now since they left, and I'm starting to worry. "Before they left, Zuko said we passed over it on our way here so they should be back by now right?"

My brother shrugs and walks over to sit with Toph where she's still resting her feet from the burns she got from Zuko.

Soon though, I hear a familiar roar and I see Appa land by our base. Aang seems pleased and tells us all to gather by camp.

Zuko and Aang are performing some kind of sun warrior tribal firebending dance move. Or at least it looks like dancing to me when they finish each shoot a large fire blast the opposite way.

"With these new moves they taught us, Zuko and I will be unstoppable!"

"Well uh, it's a nice little dance you got there."

"It's not a dance! It's a sacred form that happens to be thousands of years old!" Zuko shouts back.

So much for not fueling on anger.

"Oh yeah? What's it's called?" I ask.

He hesitates. "The Dancing Dragon."

We all burst into laughter, half of mine coming from the fact that it is called "The Dancing Dragon" and the other half from his humiliation. I would never tell anyone but he actually looks kind of cute right now with how he's embarrassed.

**Once again, another chapter completed! I will try and bring out a chapter once a week, but if I'm feeling random it may be the next day! So yes, if you haven't figured it out in the story I will be following some of the original plots as in the show with some small changes. And, if you didn't know why Zuko was blushing (it wasn't because he has a crush on her yet or maybe he does? ;)) But it was because he was embarrassed of his bending and probably didn't want her seeing how weak he was at the time. So as always review and tell me what you liked, what I can change and improve on. Ideas are always welcome and as soon as I hit 20 reviews I will start doing character questions and answers, and that will continue each time I hit another 20 so like 40, 60, 80 etc. I could only dream that this fanfic has 40, but we will see! Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

I'm watching Aang move rapidly around camp, he's yelling something but I can't quite make out what he's saying. My ears feel clogged, which usually only happens after a swim for me. I stand up from my blanket and make my way towards a frantic Aang.

"Momo?" He calls.

Ah so Momo's missing. He couldn't have gotten too far, probably just to get some food or something.

"Have you seen Momo Katara?"

I shake my head. "No, Aang you know he goes off by himself a lot, why the panic?"

He seems frustrated, I feel like he's about to yell at me when he closes his eyes for a moment or two then reopens them. I see his big gray eyes, a very unique color that I don't see most of. The only other person I know to have gray eyes is Ty Lee, like I said, don't see much of it.

"Before yes, I didn't worry about him going off, but that was before Appa went missing! I'm not losing anyone again." He's serious, and I bet he would appreciate some help but before I offer it seems we have another person accompanying us.

"Aang I told you we were going to be training in 10 minutes what are you doing?" Zuko is approaching us now his black ragged hair over his eyes, but I can always make out the golden color they contain. He's now standing by us and has his arms crossed waiting for a good explanation.

"Momo's missing."

"And?" Zuko snaps back, basically in a way saying he doesn't care at all. His hands are up in the air now, furious almost. There really is no reason to be. Sure Aang still has a lot of training to do, but he knows most of the basics now with that "Dragon Dance" or whatever, Zuko needs to take it easy.

"Well sorry if you've never lost a pet you loved! We can start training as soon as we find him, I promise. I'm going to check around the temple some more, could you guys look around to?" He opens his glider up and looks to both of us with a facial expression that I just can't say no to.

"Fine." Zuko and I say together. It's a bit awkward at this point with Aang gone. Does he expect us to go off looking together or?

"Aren't you coming?" Zuko had already began walking. I can't believe I hadn't noticed, I really do get caught up in my own thoughts too much. Sighing I walk not too far behind him, I'm not sure I can handle being right beside him right now.

"Momo?" I call out. We walk up the temple's stairs. He would be in the tree's somewhere. "Follow me this way." I walk in front of Zuko, I can feel his gaze on me, and it makes me feel awkward. "Could you not walk behind me?"

"Feh. Yeah? Where else do you want me to be?" He caught me. I need to lead, I don't want him next to me, nor to the side of me so now I look dumb. I turn back to him and stop walking.

"Where ever, but you just walking behind me is creepy. Just.." I sigh. "Walk next to me." We stare at each other, no words, no movements. What is he thinking? His eyes are always so concentrated on what they're looking at and when I stare into them I'm lost. I shake my head out of the trance. "We're wasting, let's go. You need to get back to training anyways." I turn back around my hair whipping behind me and I walk on.

"Well you could slow down." I hadn't noticed that I was walking so fast. I guess I was hoping to find Momo fast enough before I would drown in this awkwardness.

"Or you could keep up." I slow my pace just a bit and he's finally at my side. I can feel my heart pumping at an incredibly fast pace now. Spirits I bet anyone could hear this from a mile away! My eyes glance over and up to Zuko. He's quite taller than me and I bet he could sense another's eyes on him because our gazes met one another but his only response was a raised eyebrow.

"What?"

"N-nothing. You know you should be trying to look for him." We turn another hall and enter a large room, nothing but ruins and statues in it.

"Well he wouldn't be in here." He turns out and I follow. "Bobo?" Zuko calls out.

I almost laugh. "It's Momo. Mo-Mo."

"Oh." He rubs behind his neck, I guess he's embarrassed again but he's still in front of me so I can't make out any form of blush."

"Then, Momo! I feel stupid calling out that name!" He slows down on purpose so I can catch up. We stop at an edge and look out towards an old garden with a fruit and nut trees. "Why did you guys even name him that anyways?"

I smile at the memory. "Aang decided to name him Momo meaning peach in an ancient air nomad language. When we we're leaving the Southern Air Temple Momo had stolen a peach from Sokka, and that's where he got his name."

He folds his arms. Being around Zuko lately, I'm starting to notice his habits, he talks fast and mumbles occasionally. Strong and concentrated expressions, and of course folding his arms. "That seems like something Aang would do."

A nut falls in front of us. We both look up to a tall tree that's branches reach far and wide. Momo comes flying from one of them and it startles me so much that I actually jump backwards into Zuko, and I guess he was caught off guard with Momo's presence because his arms were slightly bent in front of him like he was ready for an attack, but instead it was my body that hit him and I fit perfectly in shape of how he was positioned because his hands had been firmly placed on my shoulders.

Momo is flying in front of us with a subtle confused look in his light green eyes. I notice that Zuko is still holding on to me so I pull myself away from him.

"Well we found him. I knew Aang had nothing to worry about. Come on Momo." I talk quickly and turn around so he doesn't have the time to see my blush that is burning my cheeks .

**Oh la la! Well, another chapter completed. Thank you to all who are following and favorite this story! I really appreciate it! Please leave reviews and tell me what you thought of this chapter! It's always great to know what I'm doing right and wrong, what I can fix, and I love hearing about how you might have fangirled over the chapter haha. Thank you! **


	5. Chapter 5

It is a late morning, but an early afternoon. I feel like I've done nothing productive since the invasion, and I'm afraid my waterbending has gotten rusty so I guess I'll go and practice by the fountain. Where is Aang? It's better to have a practice with two people instead of one, I'm beginning to walk over to where I last saw him when I hear a loud thump and run towards the direction of the commotion.

"Come on Twinkletoes! Is that all you got!?" Toph shot another boulder at a blind folded Aang. Well I guess he's not available for waterbending right now.

"Toph! You're going to fast!" Aang's now ducking from five different rocks coming at different speeds and directions. I see that Haru is also helping with the training and The Duke is gathering some boulders for them to throw. That's smart, this temple is already so beat up, better not mess it up by digging more earth and stone from beneath it.

"Visualize Twinkletoes! Visualize!" Toph is shouting even louder now throwing punches in the air to direct the rocks to Aang. I guess she is going too fast because the next thing I see is Aang flying through the air because a rock hit him in the stomach. And of course that is followed by Sokka's laughter.

"Aha! Good one Toph! Man I love watching these practices." He's laughing on the floor and holding his sides, it really isn't that funny. Well there's nothing left for me to see here, just a bunch of earthbenders chucking rocks at each other.

I make my way back to our base where the fountain is. The perfect amount of water for me. "Practice for one." I murmur quietly. Bending the water from the fountain I try the move that was hardest for me to get when I first started waterbending, the waterwhip. It's so simple now. "Just shift you're way through the stances." I remember the words Aang told me when he so easily mastered this move. I carelessly bend the water now, doing what I please. At one point I just freeze the water on my hand and change the temperature of the water. It goes from frozen, to liquid again, then I cause it to bubble on my hand but that kind of hurts so I stop. I continue with the waterwhip and move it around my head and body.

"Having fun?"

I drop the water over my head and turn to the familiar voice. Evaporating the water that was spilt on to my tunic I stare him down. "How long have you been standing there?" He wears a smirk on his face. Like he's pleased that he interrupted my practice.

"A while. Don't mind me I'm just watching." He walks closer and sits down, off to the side of the fountain.

"Why?"

Zuko stands up again. "Just seeing how you move." I guess I made some kind of face which gave away what I was thinking. Watching the way I move? He caught on and quickly explained what he meant. "No! I meant.. Ugh waterbenders in general. My uncle, he learned how to redirect lighting by studying the waterbenders. I just wanted to see how he could have understood the concept of another element and make up his own technique just by watching."

I'm quiet for a moment. It's interesting. Learning a new style of your bending by watching another bender bend their element. Maybe I can learn something from watching Toph, or Aang, maybe even Zuko?

"Have you done it?"

"What? Redirect lightning? Once."

"When?"

"On the Eclipse, when I faced my father and told him I would be joining you guys. He shot lighting at me, I would have been a dead right now if my uncle hadn't taught me it." Zuko's closing his eyes like he's trying to get rid of a bad memory, then he looks to me again like he's waiting for another question.

Strangely, I do want to know more. "What was it like?"

He takes a moment to find the words to describe it. "Exhilarating, but also terrifying. You're holding that much power, one wrong move and it's over."

I nod my head. "I wonder if I could learn how to do that?" It comes out as a whisper, It shouldn't even had come out at all, that was meant to stay in my head but escaped out onto my lips.

"Last time I checked, you're not a firebender, or the avatar." He teases.

Rolling my eyes I begin to speak. "No, I mean learn a new bending form or style by watching a different type bender bend their element." He takes the time to consider this.

"It's possible. I'll be you're first bender."

I laugh. "Yeah, that's a good one."

"What?"

"I don't like you. Why would I let you help me?"

He shakes his head with annoyance. "You don't have to like me, but you do have to get used to me." I'm taken back, shocked with how true that actually was even though I didn't want to accept it.

"I'll take it into consideration."

**Thanks to everyone who has favorite and followed this story! Already starting on the next chapter.**


	6. Chapter 6

I thought about it. Hesitated for a bit ,and even argued with myself. Let Zuko help me? That's basically me telling him oh I forgive you for everything you've done let's be friends. It's been a couple of days since the offer, and Aang has been practicing with his mentors (including me) non- stop. Now, I think he's training with Toph and Haru again. Sokka as well as The Duke are also watching the practice. I swear, it's like the universe is _telling _me to go right this second and get Zuko to show me his bending forms and techniques. Well you know what universe? No, I will not give in to that hotheaded, annoying prince.

Okay. I'll do it_. Only _because there is nothing else for me to do, and I bet it's the same situation for him to. But how do I come about this? "Zuko come show me what you got!" No that sounds dumb. "Come and teach me." Oh spirits not that one in a million avatar's lifetimes. This is going to be harder than I thought but I think I've got something.

I pass Appa and he groans at me. "Not quite lunch time yet." Turning a few halls and walking up the stairs I peek into Zuko's room. Is he sleeping? Yes! It's a sign, I shouldn't be asking for tips from him. As I'm turning out he calls my name.

"Katara?"

Ugh. I walk into the room and lean against the wall. With one two fingers I rub one of my temples. "Look, I've been thinking about the offer, and I guess there's not much harm in trying to find a new way to improve my bending or whatever you want to call it."

He sits up and scratches his head absorbing what I had said. "Oh, well when do you want to start?"

I shrug. "Well everyone else is training and what not so now would be alright."

He nods and stands up. We walk out of the room through the silent halls of the temple. I hope I'm not going to regret this. When we reach the bottom of the stairs Zuko trips on the last one, and I burst into laughter and immediately cover my mouth.

"Yeah haha." He continues walking towards the fountain and I snicker behind him.

When we reach the fountain we are both silent for a moment wondering how we will work this out. Zuko turns to me and frowns.

"What are you making that face for?" I question him.

"I'm not making a face, this is just how I always look." He retorts back.

"Hm well the facial expression doesn't look very pleasant."

"I'm not trying to please anyone right now. Can we just start?"

Sighing I nod and roll my hand telling him to proceed.

"Now, stand back I don't want to have to burn someone else." I take a step back and find myself taking a seat on the fountains ledge.

Zuko takes a deep breathe and begins to firebend. He takes a step forward with his left foot and it crosses his leg crosses over his right. While his right arm is extended straight, his left is pulled back to his ear, and his hand bawled into a fist similar to his right. The fire is warm, but not too hot. I believe firebenders can control the heat similar to how waterbenders can control the temperatures and physical states of water. It's a bright orange but I can see a light colored red swirl around the outsides of the flames. It comes out both of his fist and during this time I realize something. Fire just isn't destruction. It's life, warmth, and light. My entire life I've only seen it as that. Destruction. But as he continues to cross leg over leg, arm over arm, turning back and forth, shooting these amazing and beautiful flames I am starting to see the other side to fire. Although water and fire are and will always will be natural opposites they are somewhat similar.

He finishes his bending with one final blast, then breathes again. Zuko turns to me, but I'm still in awe of what I've just learned. I'm speechless.

"So did you get anything out of that?"

"Feh. Actually, yes. I did. While I noticed some similarities between our bending forms, I noticed something about firebending in general. It's.. not just destruction. It's life, and light, and warmth. My whole life I hated the element. I only saw it as something that hurt people and ruined things, but when it's used like this.. what you just showed me.. it's actually…" I paused then finish. "No, it _is _beautiful."

His golden eyes widen, and his mouth is faintly but noticeably open. Zuko's head turns to his left I can no longer see those eyes but I know I saw a smile on his face.

"Well, I'm glad. While Aang and I were at the Sun Warrior Civilization, I realized the same thing. And so did Aang. He adds that last part quickly.

A smile dances on my lips. "So what now? Should I show you some of my bending?"

"I guess it would be appropriate." He shrugs.

I walk to the side of the fountain and bend the water. I start with my left hand just below my right, as if I was showing someone how tall something was. Making a pushing movement the water in the fountain sways backwords, then I pull it forwards and a fair amount comes to me. I whip the water around me and allow it to splash on the edge on the temple. Shooting my arms behind me, I make a loop around my shoulders and bring both arms as high as I can and about 20 icicles plant their way into the ground. I turn back to Zuko and he's still watching me closely before he stands up.

"Not bad. I'm trying to think of what connections I can make between fire and water. Similar movements, anything really."

I place my hand on my chin and think about the things I observed while he was bending. "Not sure if this would help the situation but we can both control the temperature of our elements. You can make it as hot as you want and I can freeze, and even boil the water."

He's nodding his head now. "That's a good point. What else, what else."

I'm thinking now to, I really want some new moves, I hope we can come up with something.

"Come here." He motions for me to come over, so without hesitation this time (shockingly) I do.

"Um is it okay if I.." He shifts uncomfortably and rubs behind his neck. I look to him with an eyebrow raised. Oh I see why he's struggling to ask this with the predicament and all.

"Yeah uh sure." This is most likely _just _as awkward for him as it is for me.

I turn so my back is facing him. What he was so uncomfortable asking was if he could touch my arms and possibly my hands so he could show me how I couldn't possibly bend in another way, similar to a firebender.

With his left hand he grabs hold of my left wrist and pulls it gently so it's over my chest. My arm is slightly bent and then he begins on my right arm, and with his right arm he moves mine so its straight out with my hand facing outwards.

"Now, push your arms at the same time towards the water and when you pull it back do what I'm about to show you."

He does the moves which he first shows me then begins the new ones. He brings both hands up and over from the position in which they first were. Then Zuko shifts his hands downwards like they were going down a hill and pushed them forward. It was the last part that stood out, it was the firebending incorporation. At this point his arms and hands were parallel to each other.

"Ok, I'm ready to try it now." I say nodding my head once. I really like this, it's edgy , besides people of the watertribe are able to adapt to change easily, and this was definitely a change.

I start bending, it feels strange at first but I get the hang of it after a second. I'm at downwards part of the move and I quickly shoot my arms out forward in front of me and the water follows. In the middle of the move when I'm bending at the top, I make the water split so that when I'm finished bending water it comes from the top and bottom parts of my hands striking more powerful, and possibly more than one opponent.

I turn back to Zuko after I finish with one of the biggest smiles I've had in a while. "Did you see that! That was amazing! He smiling to, pleased with himself noting the fact that his bending form actually worked, or maybe he's smiling because I am? Either way, I noticed how dorky I must look and sound so my smile disappears.

"Thanks. That really was something."

"So that's all I'm going to get is a thanks?"

"For now, yes."

**Wow, this chapter was a bit difficult for me to write. It was kind of hard to find things that water and firebenders had in common and such. Also I wanted to keep Katara and Zuko in character as much as I could, but I also need to show their relationship progress so it would mean a lot if you could leave some feedback on how I'm doing with the dialogue, and characters, and anything else really. Once again thanks a bunch for all the follows and favorites I'm getting on this story. It's nice to see that everyone is enjoying it! Thanks for reading, next chapter coming up soon.**


	7. Chapter 7

"Ok it's done, who's going first?" I make my way towards the group engaging in conversation, and if by plan everyone in unison says "Toph." It's been about a week and a half since we arrived at the temple and with everything going on we hadn't had much time to find a proper place to build a tub to bathe in (Aang had been very picky about where we should build one, he doesn't want us to change much like Teo's father and their village had at the northern temple.)Earlier Toph and Haru earthbended a very large tub and I just finished filling it with water.

Our group is now laughing but Toph's expression stays the same. Cold and annoyed.

"Look I've told you lily livers that my dirt on my body is a healthy coating of my element! Come on Haru back me up on this!" She throws her hands up in the air frustrated.

"Just because I'm an earthbender to doesn't mean I like to stay dirty!" He chuckles.

Toph takes an exaggerated sigh. "And here I though we understood each other! Fine I'll go." She stands up and we start towards the bath. Before completely leaving the group I ask everyone to decide who will go next and so on.

"Well we all wanna go next how do we decide?" The Duke asks me.

I think for a moment. "Play the 4 elements, two out of three." This is probably one of the oldest games in the book. The rules are simple. All you have to do is choose one out of the four elements and make the elements motion with your hands and if your opponent has a weaker element you win.

"Alright, but I'm just saying now, boomerang counts as an element!" I hear Sokka shout as we continue walking.

"Ok Toph, it's right over here and it's made of earth as you know so you can still see. Plus it's not deep at all." She walking ahead of me now and waves her hand back at me.

"Yeah, yeah sweetness I got it."

I head back to the camp and learn of who will be bathing next. The next after Toph will be Sokka, then Haru, Aang, The Duke, Teo, and then me. As for Zuko, he's locked up in his room somewhere again. Occasionally he will eat with us and sometimes sleep by our campgrounds but for the most part he's in that room of his.

The water gets cold after first two people so I have to continuously heat the water over and over again. After about an hour it is finally my turn. I dip my toe into the water, it's lukewarm, usually I wouldn't mind, back in the watertribe we always bathed in cold water but ever since I learned how to control the temperatures, I've started to prefer to have the water hot so I heat it some more. Stripping my clothes off I enter the water. I usually leave my breast tunic and shorts on but this area is pretty secluded so I don't worry about anyone popping in besides I'm the last one to bathe. This feels so good I lower myself into the water more and close my eyes. I could spend an eternity in here.

My eyes are still closed but I hear footsteps and my eyes open slowly. I'm groggy and it feels like I'm in a dream for some reason. The footsteps near and it's Zuko.

I'm wide awake now and move to the back of the spa in shock. He has just seen me and his eyes are wide. I'm lucky, the steam is covering everything but my head and neck.

"I'm sorry!" He turns around quickly and begins to explain himself more. "S-Sokka told me you were probably done by now, that it's been more than an hour!"

I'm so flustered I don't even know what to say. "Leave!" I shout out him. I bring my arm out of the water and whip water by him. Zuko quickly walks away from the area. I'm so embarrassed, I put my hands over my face and slowly sink into the water.

…

It's late in the afternoon and everyone, even Zuko is just sitting around the fountain. We're all bored out of our minds, tired of training, and we've seen most of the temple so there really isn't much to do.

"Anyone have any ideas of what we can do?" Teo asks.

"I'm tapped out." Toph says. She's laying on the ground picking at her nails.

We all sigh and I spot Aang looking rather happy.

"Guys come over here!" He stops in front of the group and motions for us to follow.

"What is it Aang?" My brother stands up now, interested because let's face it anything could be better than what we are doing now.

"Each temple has one of the four largest pai sho tables! We can take turns playing on them!"

Sokka groans. "Pai sho! That has to be the most boring game ever, besides none of us really know how to play."

Aang is still grining though. "Come on, it's not that boring, I can teach you all to play!"

Our group looks at each other. By the looks on their faces they don't seem to mind going to check it out.

"I'll go." Haru stands up and walks by Aang. He's then followed by Teo, The Duke, Toph, eventually Sokka, and even Zuko stands to go. I glance up at him for a moment but he's not looking at me.

"Katara?" Aang says.

I'm still sitting down. "Oh, yeah let's go."

Our group begins to walk up stairs after stairs until we finally make it into a large room with a giant pai sho table in the middle.

"Ok who wants to play me first?" Aang says sitting on his knees waiting for an opponent. "Oh come on!"

Haru once again is the first to join. "I think I know about the game a little."

The rest of us sit around the table watching. Aang and Haru move their pieces for what feels like hours until Aang shouts out that he won.

"Nice game Haru."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Zuko is sitting across from me and I watch him stand up and take a seat by the table. "I'll play next."

Aang laughs. "You know how to play?"

Zuko's face is plain, it must be annoying to have so many people think you're, well dumb.

"Yes, I actually do." He picks up a tile and moves it.

Aang shrugs and their match begins. It's only a few minutes when Zuko begins to talk again.

"I win." He states.

Aang looks at the board and the look on his face says that he's impressed.

"Nice job Zuko." Aang now takes his place with the rest of us.

Even though this seems like the most boring and time consuming game, I actually want to play. Plus I would get to tease Zuko about it for a while.

"I'll give it a try." I stand up and take a sit by the table.

Zuko resets the pawns and our game begins.

"Make your move." He says to me.

Picking up a pawn with a ship on it I move it to the white checkered spot. Zuko makes almost the same move but with a flower on top of it. Wait I think I've seen that before, I believe it's the white lotus tile.

Our game continues for about half an hour before our viewers get restless.

"How long are you guys going to keep at this!" Toph shouts.

I turn to her. "I'm not losing." I look back at Zuko and move another piece.

"Well, I'm not losing either." He picks up the same white lotus tile and moves it to the middle.

Toph groans and stands up. "We'll I'm not gonna stick around all night, I'm out of here." She walks out and is soon followed by Sokka and The Duke.

Zuko and I play in silent for another hour and when I remember it just wasn't us in the room I turn to see that the remaining watchers had left too.

I sigh. "Look, just lose so we can get out of here already."

"Why don't you lose then!"

"Because, because you saw me bathing last night so you owe me!" That wasn't really the reason, a dumb one at that and but I was still embarrassed by the incident.

He blushes. "I owe you nothing, it was by mistake. Who takes hour long baths anyway!" He retorts back moving his tile around the board.

Rolling my eyes I move another piece. "I do, especially when I'm the one cleaning and cooking all the time."

Silence fills the room until he breaks the tension with one word that people use when they are unsure what to say.

"So."

"So what?" I ask.

"I don't know, just talk about something. I hate this quietness."

Talk to him, about what?

"Like?"

He shrugs. "Anything I guess, you can tell me about how you guys found Aang."

It is a funny story how it happened actually so I guess I'll tell him.

"Sokka and I were fishing and I was still new to waterbending then so I tried to catch one by bending it out of the water. Then he got all mad calling it magic, and after he started saying how girls should just work and cook or something like that. He got me angry and out of rage I was just throwing my hands in the air without realizing I was cracking open the iceberg that had Aang inside."

He nods. "It's crazy when you think about it, missing out on a hundred years."

I take that in and come up with a response. "True, but Aang has made so many friends, he's not alone."

I smile at an old memory, and tell Zuko of how the very first thing he said to me was will you go penguin sledding with me.

"Are you serious? That was the very first thing! Not how did I get here, who are you, nothing?"

I laugh. "Nope, he's something else."

"No kidding."

We're talking more than playing the game of pai sho, I hadn't realized how late it was getting until I looked out the window and saw the sun setting, when a yawn came over me.

I lay my head down on the pai sho table and move my piece next to Zuko's.

"How long has it been?" I yawn again. I'm so tired, I really just want to sleep.

Zuko puts an arm on the table and rests his head on it. "A couple of hours, it should be dark soon."

"You're not going to give up are you?" I ask him.

He makes a quiet chuckle. "Not a chance. Why don't we just both give up."

"Not going to happen." I close my eyes for a moment then open them again.

"You're stubborn." He makes his piece jump over two of mine and captures them.

"Me? How about you?" I make the same move so were even.

"Not as much as you are."

"Sure you're not." I pause questioning whether or not I want to ask him something else. Oh well no harm really I guess. "Hey tell me something about you I don't know."

He shifts uncomfortably and there is that awkward silence we always have when we're around each other. "Like?"

"Anything, go on I told you some stuff."

He groans before he talks. "I never actually wanted to go after Aang but after.." Zuko stops talking and a sad expression takes over his face.

"It's ok you don't have to talk anymore." I tell him moving another piece.

That seems to snap him out of whatever trance or bad memory came into his head.

"We're going to be here all night aren't we?" I say.

It's pitch black outside now and I can hear badgerfrogs croaking. They are known for coming out at night, but on occasion they'll make appearances in the morning.

"Looks like it." Zuko almost says it with a laugh, but maybe it was just a chuckle.

And with that I swore I closed my eyes for just a few moments, but the next thing I know I hear footsteps come from the other side and open my eyes halfway to see Zuko coming towards me.

…

My eyes snap open and I sit up to look at my surroundings. I'm in a room, Zuko's room. Wait how did I get here? I recall the night before. We definitely didn't finish the game that's for sure. Oh right I think I was falling asleep. Great that's a forfeit. But, did he carry me here? And why did he take me to his room? For a moment I just accept what he just did and lay back down to sleep, and if anyone came in right at this second they'd see this ridiculous smile that was on my lips.

**First off I'm **_**just**_** realized that I have been spelling Teo's name Theo. I'm so sorry but that's what I get for not doing my research on that, so from now I will be spelling it Teo, sorry for that.**

**Sorry for the wait on this one, I honestly had a rough time writing it. I knew what I wanted to happen but it was hard to get it out of my mind and on to "the paper". Hopefully it's alright, not sure how all of you feel about it but yeah. Review if you can. Thank you! **


	8. Chapter 8

I woke up about an hour later. What an amazing sleep it was. An actual bed to sleep on, instead of my usual cold and hard floor! I was actually kind of grateful that Zuko allowed me to sleep on his bed. But why? Why not put me on the floor with the others? Whatever his reasoning was I was going to find out. Standing up I made my way out the door. Stepping down the stairs I heard a yelp.

"Ow!"

I look down and find Zuko resting on the third stair.

"Sorry, didn't see you." I step over his leg and take a seat below his stair. While his back was resting on one side of the wall with his legs stretched out upon the stair, I mimicked his position but faced opposite of him. I pondered for a second. Now how to bring this about? I'll start with a proper greeting I suppose. "Goodmorning."

His voice came raspy. "Goodmorning." Zuko ran his hand through his hair and looked down at me wondering if I was going speak more. Those eyes of his, they always drew me in. I think Zuko is the only person I know who's eyes could be so intense, concentrated, mesmerizing.

"Um. Er. How did you sleep?" You're losing you're point Katara! I bit my lip. Wait what if he didn't even want to speak about it? Well he can't expect me not to ask questions.

He yawned before speaking to me, then sat up from the wall his back was resting on to rub it. "Sleep on these stone stairs then come talk to me."

Oh man. Did he seriously sleep on the stairs? He could have slept on the floor.. not that it's much better but still. "Yeah, about that. You carried me back to your er room right?"

I received a simple nod. "You started to drift off on me, and frankly I was getting tired too. I thought I would give you a few minutes to wake up but you really looked exhausted and basically fell asleep on me so I kinda just carried you back to my room."

Tilting my head to my left I nod twice. Makes sense. "Not trying to sound ungrateful but why your room? Why not drop me off with the group where I usually sleep?"

Zuko laid his head against the wall. He was looking up at the ceiling. "Well it didn't seem right to just drop you on the floor like that. Besides everyone else was sleeping so I didn't want to make any more noise than I already was."

"Very considerate you are." I say smiling to him.

That got a chuckle out of him. "What? I'm not a total jerk you know."

"Yeah, I'm starting to see that. Thank you." I tell him quietly.

He looks to me with a truly genuine smile. "Don't mention it."

I stand up from the step and begin to walk down the remainder of the stairs to check on the others but before I made it all the way down I tried to steal one more glance at him over my shoulder but he had been watching me make my way down and gave a simple, single wave with a small smile on playing on his lips.

The fire was crackling between the group. Everyone was sitting around it and enjoying the warm soup I had made as Zuko passed out tea.

"Would you guys like to hear Uncle's favorite tea joke?" Zuko asked.

"Sure." I say.

I head Toph say "Bring it." Which is followed by Aang saying "I like jokes."

Zuko makes his way towards The Duke and Haru to give them tea and begins the joke. "Ok, I can't remember how it starts but the punchline is 'Leaf me alone I'm bushed.'"

Our group is silent and all eyes are our on him. His attempt is cute but I won't let that allow my retort to slide.

"Right, maybe that's because he remembers the whole thing." I tell him.

Laughter erupts and I can see that Zuko even wears a noticeable smile as he makes his way to Sokka.

It hadn't occurred to me that Sokka was being so quiet until I heard him quietly ask to have a word with Zuko. He stood up and followed him away from us and I could only wonder what he wanted to talk about with the firebender.

Another great night of sleep. I awake to see the others are starting to greet the morning as well. I see The Duke carrying a large stack of hay for Appa and I'm walking over to help him when Toph and Aang join my side as well. He's already planted the hay in front of Sokka, oh well. Wait what is Momo holding?

I pick it up. "It's a note."

Aang looks over my shoulder and Toph asks what the note had said.

"Need Meat." Typical. "Gone fishing, be back in a few days. Sokka and Zuko." Aang yawns and lies on the floor. "One more thing, Aang practice your firebending while I'm gone. Do twenty sets of fire fists and ten hot squats every time you hear a badgerfrog croak. Zuko."

"At least badgerfrogs usually only come out at night!" Aang says cheerfully.

Then as if by cue a badgerfrog croaks and Aang sighs. "Aw, no one else has homework," He stands up as Toph and I walk away I hear counting his squats. "One hot squat two hot squat…"

A few hours later I spot Haru by himself by the fountain. We haven't entirely had a chance to catch up with everything that has been going on and I see now is the perfect chance.

"Mind if I join you?" I ask him

"Of course not." He's cheerful and has a very sweet smile when he says this. I sit by him eager to ask about how he and his father encouraged the people of their village to take it back from the firenation soldiers who had invaded it and forced horrible taxes on them, and worst of all taking away any person who was caught earthbending.

"I know this is kind of random but how have you been?"

"I've been doing fine thank you. You're meals also help to put me in a better mood to." He compliments.

It makes me blush but I bet I look like an idiot just looking away from him right now so I just thank him. "Hey you never told me what happened when your father and yourself returned to the village! Did you run the firenation out?"

He places a hand over his heart and his expression is priceless. Haru pretends he is offended and has his mouth open in 'shock'. "Katara I didn't realize you doubted our power and will to take our village back."

The way he talks makes me laugh. "I should be the last person you should be telling that to. I did inspire all of you after all." I now place my hand over my heart and bat my eyelashes playing innocent.

He chuckles. "Yeah, we took it back. My mother, she was so glad to see us return home. After we told her of our plans she was terrified and my parents fought about it. She didn't want us to be taken away again if this rebellion failed. But it didn't, we told out village about you. How devoted and strong you were. We also retold the speech you said to us to them. The next day the fight was on, luckily only a few were injured but we drove them out!" He smiles down at the memory.

"I'm glad to hear that."

It's been three days since Sokka and Zuko had been gone, and I know their note said they would only be a few days but I was beginning to worry. It was nightfall now and I suggested we go and take Appa around the closest watersource from the temple to see if they were anywhere in the area just to be safe but right as Toph, Aang , and I make our way towards Appa we notice a strange airship has landed and Zuko and Sokka step out.

"What are you doing in this thing? Where's the war balloon?" I ask them in bewilderment.

"It kind of got destroyed." Zuko shrugs.

"Sounds like a crazy fishing trip." Aang takes the words right out of my mouth.

"Did you at least get some good meat?" Toph asks.

Sokka nods. "I did. The best meat of all. The meat of friendship and fatherhood."

First I see a rather large man step out followed by Suki, and then.. my dad.

"What's up everybody I'm new." The strange man says. I don't even care for him at the moment.

I run towards my dad. "Dad?" I'm overjoyed, and my eyes begin to tear up.

"Hi Katara." His voice is husky and he pulls me into a hug.

When the hug stops and I begin to ask questions. "How are you here? What is going on? Where did you go? What did you..?" I look to Zuko and he has one of the biggest grins I have ever seen. Teeth and all. I smile and him and then to Sokka.

"We kind of went to a Fire Nation Prison." Sokka tells me.

My dad pulls us into another hug and we all laugh when Toph begins to talk.

"Seriously? You guys didn't find _any _meat?"

The group now made up of 11, sits around the fire hearing the story of how they rescued my father and the others. The large man's name was Chit Sang, he came along because he overheard their plot to escape and wanted in. And after Azula came across Suki and her other kyoshi warriors they battled it out and unfortunately lost and because Suki was the leader she was sent to the prison and obviously my brother wouldn't leave his girlfriend there so that is why she's here. I'm happy she's here though. Another girl finally! Toph was wonderful don't get me wrong but I would finally have a girl her who understands me and doesn't enjoy picking at her toes. Zuko is now telling part of the story and when he finished our group begins to laugh again. I catch Zuko's eyes and mouth 'thank you' to him. He makes out what I say and mouths what I believe is 'no problem'. Lately it seems like all I've been doing was thanking him, but what can I say? He deserves it.

**I'm proud with how this chapter came out! It was easy for me to write so that's why the update was a lot faster. Hope you all are enjoying the story so far. Reviews help motivate me so if you have the time please leave one! Thanks!**


	9. Chapter 9

I had just finished talking with Zuko when I heard someone shout out my name. It was Suki. I waved to her before coming to sit by her. She was sitting by the hall gates smiling like she had some sort of secret. Maybe she did, I wouldn't find out until I made it over there.

"Hey Suki, what's up?" I ask her after taking a seat. She puts a piece of her hair behind her ear and turns to me.

"Oh, same old, same old Katara. But what _I _want to know is what's up with you!"Suki still wore that grin that was starting to creep me out.

I shook my head slowly in question and rose an eyebrow. "Um, well you know just the usual. Trying to keep this group together, helping Aang in training and stuff, you know that Suki." What was she up to and why is she acting so strange?

Suki laughted quietly. "Katara it's just us girls here now! Everyone else isn't even paying attention to us. Now tell me what's really up, and don't hold back the details!" She threw her hand out towards me and I was still puzzled.

I shrugged. "Suki, I honestly don't know what you're talking about?"

Now she realized I was telling the truth. She moved closer to me and whispered in my ear. "You know… what's going on between you and Zuko!"

I immediately drew back from her. "Going on?"

She nodded and motioned with her hands in a way saying to tell her more.

"There's absolutely nothing going on between Zuko and I." I lowered my voice, even though not many people were around us I wasn't taking a chance.

"Oh come on Katara! I saw how you smiled at him last night! You two were just talking to each other." "Besides." She started. "I saw the way he looked at you just now!"

It took a minute or two before I could respond. My heart began to thump louder and faster. How come at the mention of what Suki just said caused me to react this way? She saw the way he looked at me? How did he look. Wait why do I even care. I don't care, Zuko didn't look at me in any special way..did he?

"First of all, I smiled at him because I was so overwhelmed with joy that my dad was here with you guys. Secondly we were talking because, well frankly that isn't even important." I snuck this last part in quickly and quietly."Besides I would have noticed if he looked at me a certain way!" I tell her looking away.

Suki grabs my shoulder and turns me around gently. "No, you wouldn't have because it was the way he looked at you _as _you walked away." She says smirking.

"Oh yeah? Well how did he look?" I'm stroking pieces of my hair trying to avoid eye contact with her.

"Like he was in looooove with you!" She says in a sing song voice.

"Suki!" I shout at her.

She laughs. "Ok, ok! But really Katara, he looked at you like you were the only person that mattered, his eyes were so intense. It looked like he didn't want you to leave. As you were turning to come over here he followed you around and that's when I saw the look."

Now I can't help but blush a little. I knew it was true because I often notice that intense look he had in his eyes all the time. But was the rest true? Me the only person that mattered, and he didn't want me to leave? Blah why do I care how he looked at me. We aren't even really friends right? What were we then? Curse Suki for putting these thoughts in my head! I'm out of here.

"Look Suki, I can assure you nothing is going on, now if you don't mind I have to uh go feed Appa!" Standing up quickly I walk away from her hoping this whole thing gets left behind here.

"Ok Katara, but if you ever need to talk about this I'm here!" She said that in that singing voice again.

Great.

…..

"Ok Suki, Teo, and I will be trying to find all of you and you have to make it back to the base which is the fountain before we tag you alright?" I hear Sokka say as I near the group.

"Dad, Chit Sang, are you sure you don't want in on this?"

I heard my dad laugh. "Sokka I think I'm a bit too old to be running around playing tag."

"Yeah, I'm fine just sitting back here!" Chit Sang added.

Sokka shrugged. "Ok if you're caught sit down by our sleeping stuff!"

"What does the winner get?" Haru asks.

My brother places his hand on his chin. "I don't know. They will get the title of winner and that should be good enough!" He says with enthusiasm. "Alright 10 minutes to get to the top of the temple and hide or whatever. If you're anywhere near the fountain before the 10 minutes is up you're out! You must be at a good distance away from it! Ready Go!" He shoots his arm outwards and we all make a run for it.

I begin to run and I looked to my left to see Zuko running with impressive speed. He almost looked happy to have some action and competition back in his life.

…..

I walked through the old garden Zuko and I found Momo in and decided this wasn't a very good place to hide until found. My brothers rule I guess were we weren't allowed to start running to base until one of the people searching for us found us or we heard them close by after someone else.

As I'm walking out of the small garden I hear someone running up the steps so I book it to the hall across me. I peak over the wall and see it's my brother. I'm walking backwards silently to make sure he wouldn't follow me. Walking back I suddenly bump into something.

Somehow I tripped over my own foot after I bumped into the object and landed on.."Zuko?" I say looking down at him.

"Could you get off me?" He says sounding like he's having trouble breathing.

My hands were on his chest and that's how I managed to prop myself up to look at him. "Oh sorry." I get off quickly.

"Could you be any louder?" He says standing up. Zuko dusts the dirt off of him and looks around to make sure no one saw us.

"Oh we're fine. Sokka is over there so that's why I ran to this hall, why are you here?" I ask him.

He turns his head to the way he came. "I saw Suki come up the stairs so I came over here too."

I listened more carefully to make sure we were alone before I began talking. "Well what do you want to do now? We can make a run for it since it's been longer than 10 minutes and they are in the area so.."

He rose an eyebrow. Gosh how stupid can I get why did I assume he would want to work together with me! "I mean never mind I just thought that um we'd have a better chance both winning if we both watched each other's back or something." I babbled out quickly.

He just stared at me. I couldn't even decipher what kind of stare he was giving me. A judging one? Katara you're out of your mind if you think I'd team up with you kind of stare? This is so aggravating.

"Let's run for it."

To be continued.

**Another one done! Thanks for the reviews I got yesterday! I told you they really do motivate me to write faster! I was feeling kind of silly so decided to have the group play a little game of tag/hide and seek like I used to when I was younger. We would have to hide first and when we were caught or heard someone by we'd make a run for the base haha it was fun. But anyways hope you enjoyed this chapter more coming up. As always review if you have time really helps get the next chapter out! Oh yeah, we are 3 reviews away from Character Questions. When I hit 20 reviews you can ask a character In the story a question and it will be answered depending on how many I receive. Thanks!**


	10. Chapter 10

We ran through the hall and came to a halt. Zuko peered over the wall and placed an arm behind his back signaling me stay there. I guess the coast was clear because he was running again. We're a good 15 minutes away from our base, but because we are running that time may be shorter. I wonder where the others are.

"Zuko, have you seen any of the other players before we ran into each other?" I ask him.

"You mean before you ran into me?" He says with a chuckle and then continues. "No, I haven't. What about you?"

I think back. Did I see anyone? No, and if I did I would be too caught up in my own thoughts to notice. "Nope. Doesn't really matter though let's just make it back to the base."

He slowed down, I didn't take him as someone who became weak or tired easily, but then again we were running pretty fast. I could hear his uneven and heavy breathing, Zuko turned towards me and I could see sweat glistening parts of his face. Usually, I find sweat unattractive and gross, but the way it showed and sparkled on his skin made him much more attractive, and caused me to blush.

"The base shouldn't be too far from here, and I doubt we are near the others so we can walk, if that's okay with you." Zuko said with his intense stare. He looked down for my response, the way he focused on whatever he was staring at which was me in this case, was overwhelming and my blush only grew deeper and warmer.

"I don't mind." I tell him quickly, hoping he missed my blush. He nodded and we fell into step at the same time. "It's nice around here." I look up to the crystal blue sky and then back to the old ruins of the temple. I love the fire nation, earth kingdom, and of course the watertribes architecture, but the nomads had something very special to the way the constructed their temples. This one, being a lot more special because it had for a fact been built upside down!

Zuko chuckles. "Yeah, it is pretty nice I guess."

I take a quick glance up to the tall and lean fire nation prince standing beside me. What could he be thinking about right now? His expression is as blank as a piece of paper, and hard as a rock. I really do wish he would smile more, but I just appreciate that he can at least manage a small one and a light laugh on occasion. When he was hunting us, he seemed even more angry and confused. What am I thinking? Why do I want to know what he's thinking, or more about him. He's just Aang's firebending teacher and that's it. I bet he doesn't even consider us friends.

"So." I start. Placing my hands behind back nervously I hope he can strike up some form of conversation.

He eyes me and has a confused expression on his face. "So how's Aang's waterbending?" I look down at my feet as we walk and smile. I'm glad he's trying to talk to me. Looking from the corner of my eye I see Zuko throw a hand silently in the air to lightly smack his head.

Giggling, I place my hand on my hip and cock my head to the right. "What was that about?" I ask him stopping our walk.

He turns to me shocked, like he wasn't expecting me to notice that. "Eh it was a dumb question." Zuko shrugs and looks away. I place my hand on his shoulder and turn him around. I pray to Tui that he doesn't mind me doing this.

"First off it wasn't a dumb question." I say letting my hand leave his shoulder. "I'm happy you're trying to talk to me. It counts for something.

He actually smiles. "Thanks, I know I'm probably the last person you want to be with at the moment so.."

I cut him off. "Actually no, believe it or not I'm started to get used to you."

Zuko smile widens and we begin to walk again. He really does have a lovely smile. We pass a couple statues of sky bison and I can't help but smile and think of our furry bison. Such a same such a beautiful and peaceful animal is partially extinct, and probably will be after Appa's…. No! I Shake my head I furrow my eyebrows. Why am I thinking of such horrible things right now.

"Something wrong?" He asks looking down at me. Zuko speaks with concern in his voice, it sounds so sincere I could hardly believe it came from him.

Before I can answer I'm interrupted.

"Sneak Attack!"

We turn to see Sokka running towards us. What is with him he should know by now that yelling stuff out like that won't get him anywhere. Zuko nudges me out of my thought.

"Come on!" He grabs my wrist and we start running past the statues and through the long hallways. Zuko lets go and it's a good thing too, my heart was beating so fast from his touch I thought I would die.

He jumps over a stone bench and I copy his movement.

"Run in front of me!" Zuko shouts. I have no idea why he wants me to but it doesn't matter I have so much adrenaline right now it's insane.

I turn back to see him lash out a harmless flame that is aimed towards my brother. He ducks and shouts that it's no fair to use bending, and I hear Zuko laugh as he nears me.

We make a quick turn and see Toph laughing menacingly as she runs towards us as well. I shriek as a boulder comes flying towards me and we're lucky that the hall divided into two so we took the new hall going towards the right.

There I see the fountain from here, we just need to run down these flight of stairs and we should be safe. I turn to Zuko to see him smiling from this little game.

"Hey Zuko want to make a quick deal right now?" I ask him whipping the sweat coming off of my forehead.

We're still running and he glances over to me. "What do you have in mind?" He says playfully.

I smirk and look up to him. "The second one to arrive at the fountain, between you and me of course has to make dinner tonight." Honestly I could use a break from cooking, besides I want to head to bed early tonight as soon as we are done eating and not have to worry about collecting the dirty dishes.

I see a smile take over his lips. "You're on."

We exit the hallway and begin to run down the wide set of stairs. I can't help but laugh with how childish we we're all acting today. When we both step on the last stairs we both start running as fast as we could to the fountain when Suki appeared to my left.

Zuko easily dodges her, and when she decided that he would be too fast for her, and locked her eyes on me Zuko began to jog backwards and shrug seeming pleased with himself and turned around to make it to the fountain.

Think think think. I believe I can bend the water from this distance. Reach my arms in the air I summon the water, that seemed to distract Suki when the water went around her and suddenly when it turned to ice so I could use it as a type of board to make my wait over there. I bring my arm in front of me to make the ice move faster as I tilted my arm so the ice obeyed my command to tilt to the right to avoid Teo.

I catch up to Zuko and he looks over to me and chuckles. "I won't be losing today." He picks up his pace so I have no choice but to do the same. Too bad for me that the cement was starting to melt the ice so I used as much of the ice as I could to make it to the fountain before I hopped off it and began to run to the fountain.

"I won't lose either! See ya!" I laugh as I bend just a bit more water for my ice board because we we're now in the shaded part of our base so the floor shouldn't be as hot. Once again I jump off the edge of my ice board and land on top of the fountains ledge.

I shoot my arms up in victory. "Thank you! Thank you! I'm wonderful I know!" I basked in my own victory and smirked at the approaching Zuko. He places a hand on the ledge and is breathing heavily when he looks up to me in defeat.

"Pretty good. Pretty good." He smiles up at me. "Guess I'm the chef tonight, but I know my cooking will never be as good compared to yours." Zuko compliments.

Blushing I thank him. "My Zuko, I didn't realize you appreciate my cooking so much!" I tease.

He chuckles silently and placed both hands on hips. Zuko shurgs after and looks up at me once again. "Well then again it shouldn't be too hard to stir some soup and berries together."

I snort. "Yeah, we'll see!"

…..

We are all talking about today's events when Zuko began serving the meal. Our group wondered why he was the one cooking for once and we all laughed when I told them it was because he lost our little bet.

Zuko bent down and handed each person a bowl when he finally made it to me. When he sat down by me he whispered in my ear.

"Well aren't you going to taste it?" He asks. I blush and look away. The soup was a muddy brown color but it kind of smelt alright?

I raised the bowl and took a small sip. Squinting my eyes I look around to see how others reacted to the soup and their expressions seemed to be similar to mine. It was very bracing, but tolerable.

I lean back over to Zuko to whisper back in his ear. "Remind me never to make any kind of bet like that with you again."

He raises an eyebrow, and takes a sip. Zuko furrows his eyebrows and when he swallows he makes it look like it is the worst thing he has ever encountered. "Ugh! This is..!"

I smirk at him and he looks back trying to seem proud of his work. "Amazing."

I laugh because I know he's lying, oh well. Sighing I take another sip of this "soup" if we even want to call it that.

…..

"_Mom? Mom!" I run towards the figure facing the other way. _

_She turns and smiles the smile I have missed for years. "Mom!" I shout again running with all my might, but even though I'm running she grows farther and farther away._

"_Mom, please wait! Don't go! Mom I need you! Please don't go!" I shout louder and feel the tears stream down my face as I try and catch up to her. I fall down into some mud and call out to my mom again when suddenly the green landscape with the clear blue sky that we had been in changed into a fire wasteland. I try to stand up to call out to her again. But the smoke that was around from the fire was making it hard to breathe. _

"_Mom!"_

_She's in front of me now, reaching out to take my hand but a dark force is pulling me back. I dig into the land and try to stay with her when the fire slowly traps my mom and she is gone._

"_Mom! No! Give her back! Give her back to me!" The tears are streaming faster now as I hit the floor with anger and greif._

"_Moooom!" _

I sit up instantly. My breathing is fast and I look around to check my surroundings. Next I feel my face, practically soaked. It's so sticky, I was actually crying in my sleep. Then, I remember why I was crying and I close my eyes and try to sleep again when the images pop into my head. I shed another tear. Why did I have this dream tonight? It's been so long since I've had a dream involving my mom. And everyone I've had since her death has been the same. Sad, unpleasant, and always ended with her being taken away from me. Again.

**Wow. What a way to end a chapter. I actually started to choke up a bit writing the ending. Sorry for the 2 week wait! I really meant to get a lot of chapters done because of Thanksgiving break but I never found the time with events that took place. Speaking of Thanksgiving even though it was yesterday I'm thankful for everyone reading this story, and I'm thankful that I finally got this chapter out! As always review if you have time! Oh, and we made it to 20 reviews so you guys can ask a character in the story a question with your review and it will be answered in the next authors note! Thanks for reading :) **


	11. Chapter 11

"Katara! Katara! Hello can you hear me?"

Snapping out of my trance I notice Aang has been shaking my shoulder trying to get my attention.

"Huh what is it?" I look to see everyone else is on Appa, and I remember what all of us had discussed the previous day. We are going to fly somewhere not too far from the temple for more space to practice and train.

A grin appeared on his face before he began talking. "Don't you remember we're going to train outside the temple. Let's go!" He pulls on my wrist to help me up and when I'm on my feet again I look over to the sky bison to see Zuko looking over our way. His arms were crossed and he looked almost angry? He sees me looking so in return he looks away. Strange.

"Okay everyone, ready?" Aang says hopping up on Appa with a lift from his airbending. I climb up onto Appa by his horns and begin to make my way over to the back when Aang's voice stops me.

"Katara do you want to sit up front with me?"

Looking back over my shoulder to the group no one seemed to notice what he had said. Toph talking with Haru and The Duke, Sokka cracking a lame joke receiving an embarrassed look from his girlfriend Suki, who is sitting by Teo. Dad and Chit Sang talking. And then there's Zuko. Pouting with his head resting on his hand. It is pretty crowded, no harm I guess.

"Sure." I offer a small smile to him and turn around to take a seat by him.

"Yip Yip!" He shouts with enthusiasum, and were off.

….

I jump off of Appa and look at our surroundings. Let's see. A small lake to my right, I can work with that. Lots of earth, Zuko and Aang can create their own element, and Sokka and Suki can spar together. This place is great.

"Katara are you coming?"

Zuko's voice is deep and raspy I turn to see him a few steps behind the group who have advanced. Gee thanks for waiting guys. But I guess it's my fault for zoning out like always.

"Uh yeah, sorry." I notice my voice came out nervous and fast. Why does this guy always catch me off guard?

He chuckles. "You do that a lot?"

I raise an eyebrow, what does he mean. I place a hand on my hip before speaking. "Do what might I ask?"

This brings a crooked grin to his face, amused that I have no idea what he's talking about. "Space out like that, you always seem lost in your thoughts."

Oh he's good. But then again it's not that hard to notice when someone's not really paying attention. A wind blows through his hair, making him look a lot more attractive. Gah what am I thinking? I walk past him and shrug. "So what if I do?"

He catches up fast. "No big deal, but I can't help but wonder what goes through your mind when you do get lost like that. Especially" Zuko adds. " When you look at me.

Now this completely catches me off guard and I stop in my tracks, and he continues walking. Zuko stops and turns around to face me. "Katara, I was kidding."

"Oh, oh right." I laugh to slide it off. "I knew that."

We continue to walk, and my heart is still pounding. Had he really noticed the times I have looked at him? This needs to stop.

"Alright everybody! Start Training!" Sokka yells out loudly pumping a fist in the air.

I walk over to the small lake to try the moves Zuko taught me. I think of when he was holding my arms while being so close to me . Mixing his firebending forms with mine to create a whole new move. I drop the water that I was bending. Why am I getting so flustered over him? And more importantly why am I thinking about Zuko.

Bending some water out of the lake again I start off my usual waterwhip when a husky voice startles me.

"Wanna Spar?" He asks walking up to me.

Stay calm. It's just Zuko. "Hm I don't know, if you can keep up with my skills. I am a master after all!" I tease.

He smirks. "I think I should be the one to decide that. And who's not to say I'm not a master myself? I am training Aang after all, as you have!"

"Ha! A master you say? Well like you said I'm gonna have to decide that. Let's go!" I summon another waterwhip on to other arm and smile. This should be fun.

….

We seem to have drawn a crowd because from the corner of my eye I see everyone besides Sokka watching.

"Go Katara!" Aang shouted.

I heard my father and Chit Sang's loud laughter from the side, as well as Toph cheering.

"Don't freeze up Katara." Zuko shouted from the side he was on.

"Oh don't worry about me, I won't be the one that's frozen." I'm ready to finish this. I start running up to him and with my waterwhip wrap it around his wrist and pull him towards me. Looking up to him, I'm sure my eyes are gleaming . Our chests are basically pressed together and I still have my hold on him, arm above my head. We breathe heavily and I see that cute crooked smile he shows when he's around me. Or at least I think he only shows it around me.

"Beat me again." He chuckles lightly.

I'm still breathing heavily, my chest pumping up and down, and then I smile. "Mhm, sure did, now say Katara you truly are a water bending master, no no, a waterbending prodigy!"

He sighs and looks at me with the most intoxicating look. "Katara, you truly are a waterbending master, and a waterbending prodigy."

I nod in agreement. "Why Zuko that's so sweet of you!"

Zuko shakes his head and looks back down at me. Spirits I love the height difference between us. He towers over me, and makes me feel so protected. "Now if you wouldn't mind releasing me, pretty sure we still have an audience.

I turn to see my dad with a frown on his face, witnessing the previous events. Aang is looking away. The boys are whispering among themselves. And Suki, is giggling. Spirits I know she is going to ask me about what we were talking about.

Before releasing him I whisper to him. "Hey I think it's only fair that I beat you like this after you tied me to that tree."

He smiles. "You still remember that?" His voice shows he's surprised and glad that I did remember.

I finally let go of my grip. "Course' I do. Well thanks for the spar. You can always call me Master Katara from now on."

He chuckles again. "Dream on."

I shrug. "Worth a shot."

"What is everyone doing?!" Sokka is running up to our group. "Everyone should be practicing."

My dad is starting to walk up to me. Spirits, what if he gives me the talk or something! I tense up, but then relax when I see Sokka turning my dad the other way.

"Dad come check this out."

I can see my dad is reluctant to go, but he does so anyway. Goal for the rest of the day, Avoid Suki and my father.

…..

It didn't' last long. After dinner Suki pulls me aside and asks for all the details.

"Really Suki, it's not a big deal." I place my hands on my hips trying to convince her and stand my ground but that stare the older girl is giving me just causes me to give in.

"What do you want to know?"

She squeals. "Everything!"

I wave at her, and give her a stern look. "Geez don't be so loud! All he wanted to do was spar, I beat him, and that's it."

Suki rose an eyebrow. "Stop holding back, I want to know what you two were talking about for a good I don't know 10 minutes."

I shake my head. "Oh stop exaggerating. It was like 2! I was just telling him that he needed to call me a waterbending prodigy, and that's all!" Yawning, I cover my mouth. "Well Suki it's getting awfully late, I'll see you tomorrow."

She giggles. "You're not getting out of this that easily Katara!"

…

_I'm in a field of panda lilies. Wearing a blue dress that flows down to my ankles. I'm bare foot, and most_ definitely not in the south pole, or north for that matter. I've seen these flowers before, in the firenation. That must be where I am.

_I hear a man's scream and run towards it. The scene changed, I'm in a forest, and it's a full moon. The man's on his knees, and the upper half of his body is twitching. Bloodbending. I see the back of the women now. She just suddenly appeared. Short, dark colored clothes ,and long grey hair, half in a bun. Hama._

"_Stop Hama!" I try bending but I can't!_

_The women turns to me and I'm so shocked I back away. "Mom?" There was no way this was my mother. The short little figured turned into a taller women with brown hair all in a bun. She looked so evil and started to cackle. This women, I can't even call her my mother wore a devious grin. This can't be happening._

_Our scene changed again. I'm in a cave and I'm alone. That is until I hear my mother's voice a sweet call. "Katara, dear."_

_I turn around and am face to face with her but it's only her face. And behind it a strange long and huge type of caterpillar. The face immediately changes to a screeching monkey and I'm so frightened I scream and the next thing I know, I see my own face on the strange monster._

…...

"Ah!" I sit up and my breathing is uneven. I place both of my hands in my face, and am startled when momo comes to sit on my lap. Thankfully no one woke from my outburst. I walk over to the edge of the temple and try to and get my thoughts together.

"Are you ok?" I turn around and see Zuko looking down at me. His eyes widen when he sees the tears down my face.

"Oh Zuko." I manage a forced laugh. "Yeah I'm fine. What brings you over here?"

"A scream." He says bluntly. Zuko takes a seat by me. "Nightmares?"

A single nod confirms what he asked. "You don't have to stay out here with me, just need to get some thoughts straightened out.

" Wouldn't be very gentlemen like to leave a girl out here by herself crying. What was your dream about?"

I sigh. "It's complicated."

He turns to me. Zuko looks so sincere the moon's beam shining on him. Gorgeous. "I'm here if you need ever need someone , I know I hardly know you and I'm not the best at comforting people but-"

He's cut midsentence when I simply rest my head on his shoulder. Zuko tenses up for a moment, most likely shocked by the action I just performed but he relaxes and just places his arm around my lower back for support. I let out a few sniffles but right now just sitting like this him just seemed so right, so perfect.

**I forced myself to get this out today. This should have been out 3 weeks ago but I just lost my drive for it, and wasn't sure where I wanted this chapter to go. But here it is sorry for the wait!**


	12. Chapter 12

I take a few deep breathes and close my eyes once more before standing up. It's fairly cold tonight and it reminds me of home, but after departing from Zuko it only made me want to go back to his warmth. Such a comfortable warm atmosphere he had created. Zuko stands up with me and we stood there staring at the full moon together. I could feel his eyes on me as I took in the the moon's beams. Waterbenders are most powerful with a full moon, I could feel it grant me its powers. Taking one last look at Zuko I smile, and surprisingly he returns it with a tired look in his eyes.

I walk away, but once he notices I'm not making my way to where the group sleeps he follows me and speaks up.

"Don't mean to be in your business, but where are you going?" He asks catching up to my speed.

"I'm going to sleep in one of the actual rooms tonight." I state plainly.

We walk up the stairs quietly and I decided to take the room next to his. He walks with me all the way to the room and for once the silence we go through is awkward.

"Thanks." I mutter.

He raises his eyebrow in confusion. "For what?"

Smiling I shake my head. "Are you going to make me say it? It's already embarrassing."

Zuko has a teasing smirk on his lips. "Maybe I should make you say it?" He chuckles.

I nudge him. "Night Zuko." I say as I'm shutting the creaky wooden door.

I hear his footsteps leave as I make my way towards the bed. Hmm the bed could be cleaner, but I'm too tired to care so I slip into bed for a long and hopefully undisturbed sleep.

….

He falls back on his bed and runs his hand through his jet black hair. _Why am I thinking about Katara like this? _Zuko wonders.

He lays on his stomach and his thoughts pondered. _She can be so infuriating, and childish! But at the same time there's something about her… something special. _Zuko groaned when more thoughts came into his head. _ Mai. Where does she stand in this? Sure I ended it with that note, but that wasn't really fair. And it was to keep her out of trouble, or was it?_ Zuko sighed at his confusing thoughts. _Of course it was to protect her I still care about Mai, but her and Katara are two different people. Katara shes.. amazing, and makes me feel like I can have fun and laugh, a whole new person. Mai is well plain,and it seems whenever I try to do anything for her she doesn't really appreciate it._

Sitting up Zuko remembers that his room at first didn't have any type of blanket or sheet when he first moved in, but since then he's acquired one. _I should probably give this to Katara._

He grabbed the light blanket from the bed and walked to her room. Zuko knocked lightly on the door and when no answer was received her opened the door slowly and peeked in to find Katara sleeping. He sighed and walked inside carefully, and then slowly placed the light blanket over her body. Zuko stood over for a short time admiring how she slept before he made his departure.

….

_Again huh?_ I tried to catch my breath after the nightmare I had just woken up from. Why? Why are they tormenting me again. It's too much. Maybe I should talk to dad? No, I don't want him to worry, besides I know it would be painful for him to hear that it still troubles me. I miss her so much.

I close my eyes and try to think of a better time, when we were all together in our little water tribe. Let me go back to that peaceful time. That is my last thought before I drift back into sleep.

….

"Has anyone seen Katara?" Aang asks.

Sokka bits into a piece of jerky and shakes his head. "No, and she usually doesn't wander off!"

Suki laughed when his stomach growled. "Sokka how are you hungry? That is you're fifth piece of jerky!"

He took another bit and began to talk. "These aren't very filling you know! Besides my stomach is used to Katara's breakfast by now! Where is she?

No one around the camp seems to know where he is, until Sokka notices Zuko is oddly quiet even for him.

"So Zuko. Have you seen Katara?"

He looked up to Sokka with a plain face. "No." He states plainly.

"Well then we must start searching for her! Who knows what could have happened!? Haru and Aang start searching the rooms! Suki and I will-"

At that moment Katara walked in and stretched her arms before making it over to the group. "Sokka stop making a big fuss, I was just sleeping in the rooms."

He seemed skeptical at first, but let it slide.

"So when's breakfast?"

….

I caught Zuko staring at me as I sat down to eat. The blush on my cheeks couldn't be stopped, I was still embarrassed from how I acted the previous night. Surely I looked childish, after all this time I've been telling him I was telling him how strong I was.

The usually talk went around the group, what their dreams included, how they couldn't wait for the war to end, etc. Since these nightmares have occurred I usually lose focus during these times and try to sort them out. What do they mean? Or do they mean anything? Maybe I just miss her, but I always miss her. So why now?

"Katara, you haven't told us about your dreams lately? Lay it on us!" Aang says cheerfully.

The group couldn't have missed my cringe and hesitation. I felt all eyes on me waiting for me to talk, then I met Zuko's, he knew about my nightmares and I really felt like at that moment he wanted to help me, but before he could do anything I excuse myself.

"Um." I start nervously. "I gotta go get Appa some hay, I totally forgot!" I stand up and walk away quickly, and from where I am I can hear The Duke shout that he already fed him.

…..

I sit on the stairs nearest the rooms. Knees up, and arms rested on them. _Mom I miss you. _A tear streams down my right cheek and I let a small sniffle out my nose. I bury my head in my knees and wrap my arms around my leg, it is only a few moments later when I hear footsteps. I only lift some of my head up to see Zuko's black boots with the single golden strip on each one.

"Go away." I tell him coldly.

"No."

"Leave, now."

Silence. I'm too angry and embarrassed to look at him, but my blood is boiling and I just need to get my anger and confusion out.

I stand up quickly and charge up to him. "Go! I don't need someone like you trying to comfort me!"

He's hurt. The look stabbed me. He began to say something but turned around.

"Water Peasant." He mumbles.

"Spoiled- Brat!" I shout back.

When I'm sure he's gone I rush back to my room and throw myself on the bed.

I never should have started associating myself with him. And I almost actually liked him. But now I realize what these dreams mean. He's the enemy. Firenation. I can't trust him, these dreams must be warning me.

I hate him. I hate Zuko.

**Sorry for the wait. I feel like I'm really lagging with this story and the writing. For example I changed the perspective this chapter which I hate doing so sorry for that, but I wanted you guys to see what Zuko did haha. Anyways I always get my Zutara feels and want to write but I never have a full story planned out so that's why these updates take awhile. Lately though I've come up with some more original and planned out things I could do with new zutara fanfiction I want to write. So hopefully this new one will be my best one yet. And don't worry zutara will play out in the end. Oh yeah and I know it's kind of late but happy new year!**


	13. Chapter 13

I wake up with my head throbbing , must been from the crying and frustration the day before. My father and a few others tried to get me out of the room, they were worried and wanted to know why I was locking myself in there. Telling them I wasn't feeling well seemed to work for the first few hours but when night rolled in they started to worry again and questioned why I wouldn't let anyone in.

Sighing, I sit up from the bed. I grab a rubberband to place my hair into the female's version of the warrior's wolf tail. Need to face them sooner or later. I walk over to my door, and open it carefully so I don't risk Zuko hearing me creep out. He had tried to talk to me to, apologize I guess. There's no way I can face him. I hate him and everything he's put me through. No more chances.

Peaking through the creak of the door, I decide the coast is clear and make my way into the hall. Before making my appearance to the others I decide to go by another small fountain I discovered and wash my face.

When I reach the fountain I peer over it, and am shocked by what I see. My eyes were a sickly red color with huge bags under them. My hair with single brown strands hanging all over. I looked sick enough, hopefully they won't bug me with more questions, but still I don't want to look like this. I splash some water on my face and redo my wolftail. Breathe Katara. Breathe.

…

"Oh hey Sugarqueen!" Toph shouts even before they can see me.

I turn the final hallway and see my brother as well as Aang rushing towards me.

"Katara! Are you feeling better?" Aang asks me.

I smile. "Much better."

Aang looks relieved and smiles back at me, with a hint of blush so I turn to my brother.

"Oh thank goodness Katara! I've missed you so much!" He embraces me tightly.

"Ow Sokka. And I was only in my room for a day."

He breaks the hug and rubs the back of his neck. "Well, actually I missed your cooking. No offense but Suki and Toph working together is nothing compared to yours!"

This makes me laugh, and it feels good. Laughing. Seems like it's been forever. Maybe I should consider talking to Sokka. He understands what I feel, he must. And when I'm feeling down he'll probably tell some story about all of us together to make me laugh or feel better. Regardless, I need to talk to someone, and soon.

….

Everyone tries their best to make me feel better, the "I'm feeling a bit sick" act must have not been convincing enough so they have all tried to make me smile or laugh and even help around with some of the work I do around here. It's nice to have the support of your friends and family. Luckily I've been keeping myself busy so I haven't even thought about Zuko. That is until he makes his way to our base.

...

He tries to get my attention by catching my eyes. No. I am done with this guy. I need to get away, and stay as far away as I can. When Aang faces the firelord this will all be over and I will never have to deal with this prince again.

"Hey Aang I'm gonna take Appa for a ride." I tell him as I make my way towards the bison.

He yells back saying it's alright and I hop up on Appa.

"Yip Yip!"

…

I really want to bend some water from the clouds just for some fun. I decided not to stand on Appa to do it since I'm able to sit doing it if I fly up high enough.

"Can you stop for a second Appa, I'm gonna try something."

When I climb up to the saddle in the back I scream.

….

"I will **push **you off this saddle, if you try and talk to me."

He frowned and rose his hand before I summoned the water from the clouds and forced the water onto his stomach to push him back.

…

He's silent the rest of the flight back to the temple.

I land Appa, hop off of and race back to my the room. Honestly, I don't think should ever leave this room. It's not fair at all really. My friends, my family and Zuko gets to enjoy it all while I have to be stuck in my room because of him.

I need to scream. So I grab a pillow and scream into it. I need a plan.

….

"Katara is acting really strange. Do you know why?" Haru asks Aang.

Aang shrugs and frowns. "I have no idea, but it's worrying me to."

"What could have happened?" Suki says joining the conversation.

Momo flies over onto Aang shoulders and droops his head down for Aang to scratch him.

"Maybe I should try talking to her." Hakoda adds.

Sokka is silent and shakes his head. "No, Katara, she's never liked burdening people with her own problems. If and when's she's ready she'll talk to us. But for now let's just let her be.

The group is stunned with the truth to what Sokka had just said.

"Wow, Sokka. That was…" Toph starts.

He puts his hands up. "Hey I've got my moments!"

"Zuko you seemed bothered to. What's up?" Haru asks.

He looks around at the group before them sitting around the campfire he made. "I'm fine. Kind of tired so I'll turn in. Goodnight."

…

A knock at my door brings me out of my pillow which is drenched with tears.

"Y-yes?"

"Katara" He starts.

"Katara, please can I just apologize to you?"

He bangs on the door loudly once more in frustration. "What have done to make you so angry!? Because I called you a name? I'm sorry! I don't want it to be like this, we were friends weren't we?

"No we weren't, and never will be." With that he left.

…

"And to think I thought we might have had something going on." Zuko whispers to himself as he walks to his room.

…..

And another chapter is released! Hope you enjoyed reading, I plan to update again this weekend on account of it's a three day weekend! As always review, and thank you to all who normally comment and favorite and follow the story! Thanks, your reviews really do get the chapters out faster and make me feel better about the story!


	14. Chapter 14

The next morning we are all by the fountain talking and discussing about the plans for the defeat of Firelord Ozai on the day of Sozin's coment which was now four weeks away. One month. We have one month to figure out how we can defeat him, before the world comes crashing down. I look over to Aang, months ago I would of expected him to try and avoid any kind of talk about defeating the firelord, and saving the world. He was just a kid back then, who wanted nothing more than to penguin sled, and ride on unagi's with nothing but his trousers on. But he's grown so much. Here he is sitting intently, eyes so serious and focus. Posing suggestions, and idea's and realizing his duty. For a moment he notices my eyes are locked on him and he glances towards me and gives me a small smile until he turns back to my father and Sokka and nods to what they are saying.

It's been awhile since Zuko and I last talked. Everyone seems to understand the distance we are trying to keep between us and no longer speak of it. I hear him talking to Aang, something along the lines of 'we are really going to have to push your training these last few weeks.' I look to him. His hand runs through his jet black hair as he continues to explain their goals. He also notices my attention but simply turns his attention back to the others as soon as he does. The awkwardness seemed to have died down a bit between us, but the tension is still there, and if I can still feel it, I'm sure everyone else can too.

"Katara?"

My head snaps in the direction of the voice. It's my father. I clear my throat before I begin to speak. "Yes?"

"We asked about how much more training time do you think Aang needs to have with you? You, Toph, and Zuko need to discuss and divide the times you will have training with him. So you three get together and talk about that right now, but with that our meeting for today is over." My father walks away and the others do to.

Sighing, I stand to walk over to where Toph and Zuko are so we can quickly get these training times sorted out. Spirits why am I fretting so much? I really don't want to have any type of conversation with him. As I get closer my heart pounds faster and I just pray that I don't look as nervous as I feel.

"What's up sweetness? Your heart's racing faster than a rabaroo!" Toph comments before laughing.

I shoot her a sharp and deadly glance. Thanks Toph. I don't reply to the childish and embarrassing comment but wait until either one of them begins talking. Neither of them do.

"Don't start talking all at once guys, one at a time." She comments. "Well Aang still needs to clean up his earthbending. No offense Katara, but I don't think you need a whole lot of time with twinkletoes, he's been training with waterbending for a half a year now. If anything Zuko needs the most time and me second."

Toph's right. I personally don't have a problem with letting them have more time. Aang has basically mastered water, sure some parts aren't perfect but with this comet coming, it will make his firebending his best chance at winning since it increases all firebenders power. I nod at Toph, accepting what she just said.

"Well you're right Toph. You two can decided how long you want to train with Aang for the rest of the time we have, and whatever time slots are left for me I'll take." With that I turn and leave the Toph and Zuko.

There, not so bad. I think I remember Sokka complaining about no more fruit so I guess I'll go over to that garden and pick some more.

…..

"So Zuko how many hours a day do you think you need to practice with Aang?"

He ponders. "Well, we don't want to overwork and tire him. An hour and a half a day for each of us with a hour break in between so he can rest should be good."

Toph nods. "Yeah, that sounds good. Well I guess this is settled now."

"Alright." Zuko begins to walk off with Toph shoots a small pillar in front of him, blocking his way off walking.

"What?" He asks.

"Look everyone knows something happened between you and Katara. Now if you wouldn't mind telling me we can all be on out merry way."

Zuko groans, annoyed with Toph and the way everyone always tried to get in his business. Azula, Ty Lee, his mother, and his uncle! Boy his Uncle always got into everything. He smiles at the thought of Iroh but then is serious again. "Look it's nothing."

"Not bad." Toph says rubbing her chin.

"What?"

"Good lying skills must run in your family. Your heart beat is still the same no change, no panic, nothing."

"That's because there's nothing to hide!" He snaps. Zuko attempts to walk around the pillar when she slides it in front of him again.

"Uh uh uh."

"Ugh, come on! If you want to know what happened ask her!"

"Tried, but she won't say anything."

"What makes you think I will then?"

"Well, I can play this game all day." She says moving the earth pillar side to side.

Zuko groans, but then his face saddens. "Well, things started rocky, but then we kind of became friends I guess. But then-" He stops and remembers the night he found Katara sitting alone after a nightmare woke her up. He remembers the tears and the sad look in her deep blue eyes. That look pained him when he saw it. The strong and beautiful watertribe girl…looked broken.

"Then?" Toph says motioning with her hand for him to continue.

"Then she started to snap at me for no reason and I'm not sure why." He finishes. A thought enters his mind. Surely she wouldn't be mad at him just for a name he called her. After all she called him the name first! Or maybe he did and he just couldn't remember correctly. But that didn't matter, why was she mad at him? Zuko felt happy for once when he finally began to get close to Katara, and he did not want to go back to the hurt and confusion he felt in his life since he was banished or better yet when his mother disappeared. He wanted to apologize for whatever he may have done. But the last time he had, she had simply told him they were never and will never be friends. What was he to do?

"Hm, that's not like Katara. There's always a reason for the things she does. If I were in your situation, I'd figure it out and fix it. Sokka once told me she feels she needs to be right about everything, so you just need to sit her down and talk."

"Yeah, I'll try. Thanks, so can I go now?" He asks still a bit irritated.

She gets rid of the pillar with her bending and Zuko takes a few steps forward before another shoots up in front.

"Toph!"

She laughs. "Sorry, it's funny to see people annoyed!"

…

The intensity of my nightmares have lessened but that doesn't make them any less worse. It's still painful, and they're still all the same. Me losing my mother. I don't get it, those dreams were warning me about Zuko, they had to be. For the past few nights, he had been in the nightmares. Sure he wasn't the reason my mother disappeared or was killed in the dreams but still.

I finish the soup just as everyone begins to for a line behind me with bowls. Suki suggested it would be better if everyone lined up instead of making me go back and forth with bowls, handing them out to everyone.

"Mushroom soup Katara?" Teo asks.

"Your favorite right?" I smile at him.

"Yeah, especially when it's made by you!" He says.

I smile back at the compliment and serve some soup to Haru. "Hey I'm pretty fond of your soup too!"

I laugh at him. "Why thank you!"

Next in line is The Duke. "Well I think you're tomato soup is the best!" He motions with his hands in a way telling me to bend to so he can whisper in my ear. "You know that was a hint right?"

I stand back up. "Yeah I caught on." Laughing I pat my hand on his shoulder before I put some soup in his bowl.

Zuko steps up next. Great. I place the spoon back into the pot to give him some.

"Thanks." He mutters quietly.

I don't respond.

"Do you think we could talk after this?"

Again, I don't respond.

When he realizes I'm not going to speak he walks away. If I keep avoiding him like this, or trying my best to, maybe just maybe these haunting nightmares will go away.

…..

**Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Actually got this done in one day and usually it takes me like two or three. Poor Zuko baby. Don't worry, all will work out very soon! As always review and tell me what you thought!**


	15. Chapter 15

I eyed him. Then a few moments later I did again. Every few minutes I eyed Zuko. My theory that I needed to avoid him was dismissed, and instead was replaced with paranoia and anxiety. While the terrorizing nightmares of my mother being killed, and taken away still occurred, new ones have started to arise. In them, he always betrays us. The saddest part of the dream is it's when I felt I could trust him the most and bang! Aang is lying unconscious because of him, and sometimes it's even worse.

"Katara!"

The voice startles me and I turn to see Aang with his palms up in front of him in a defensive mode. When he sees me relax he does too and a smile replaces the confused look.

"Sokka wants to know when you'll be able to sew the whole in his pants!" He exclaims.

"Hole?" I question.

Aang nods and laughs. "You weren't there when he got it huh!? It was hilarious he was.."

I mute Aang out and look past him. Squinting my eyes into the distance I see Zuko pick up a knife. I immediately push Aang out of the way to make sure I'm seeing correctly. Yes, he has one. And it's sharp. As soon as I'm about to run and attack, Aang grabs onto my shoulder and spins me back to face him.

"What's wrong?"

I turn back to face Zuko. "That!" I say pointing to him. "Look! He has a knife he's going to.."

"Cut the vegetables for lunch?" He finished the sentence.

I look harder, and of course he has some carrots in his hand and placing them on a table to begin cutting.

"You know it's really nice to see Zuko helping around and all. Makes a good team member huh Katara?"

He looks regretful of what he said when I look at him with a 'are you kidding me' face.

"What did you think he was doing?" Aang asks dumbfounded

I'm hesitant to answer. "Oh uh well, I was going to make lunch."

He shrugs. "Well I guess he did you a favor!" Momo flys onto his shoulder and he walks away with him smiling.

Breathing a sigh of relief I look back to Zuko. I guess he said something to make Suki and Sokka laugh because they are both cracking up, and I swear I see a smile on his face. It's just.. how can they be so calm?

"I need some time to think" I mutter to myself.

I walk over to the steps furthest away from the group and breathe. "Deep breaths Katara." I whisper.

I lean my head against the wall and shut my eyes. Images of the times I spent with Zuko before this paranoia started. My eyes stay shut for some time and the next thing I knew, my dad is tapping my shoulder telling me dinner was ready.

"I decided to make dinner for once Katara, you've seen.. well really exhausted lately." He tells me.

My eyes are filled with thanks but also shame. "Thanks dad, but I'm fine really." I lie.

He frowns, obviously not convinced. My dad takes a seat by me and sighs. "Katara, I know we just became reunited again, but I want you to know I am your father and I will always be there for you whenever you need to talk, or for any reason at that."

"Dad" I tell him as I look up at him. "I'm sorry if I've been worrying you lately, I guess with the comet coming up and all of the things going on right now, I've been feeling a bit stressed."

My dad nods in agreement. "Mm yes, this is a big deal, but if any of us should be stressed it should be Aang, and surprisingly it seems like he is taking it all pretty well."

"You're right." I smooth out my dress before standing up with my dad. Hugging him I feel him breathe a sigh of relief as if he had finally come through to me.

…

I take the dishes over to the fountain and begin to wash them. Only a few moments later am I joined by Sokka.

"Hey sis." He says grabbing a plate to help me wash.

"Wow, you must be in a good mood if you're helping me wash dishes." I laugh grabbing another dish.

He shrugs. "Eh you look like you needed help, isn't that what big brothers are for?"

I put down the plate and look at him with a cocked eyebrow. "Really? I thought big brothers were for eating up all the food, and making lame sarcastic jokes all the time! Boy have you been doing it wrong."

"Ha. Ha. Very funny, Katara. But come on I can be reliable sometimes right?"

I smile and wash the dish again. "Sometimes." I mutter under my breathe.

"I heard that!" He says nudging my arm before taking off.

…..

I look up to the stars in the jet black sky and wonder. How this all works, the universe and all. With all the time I've been spending with myself, thoughts like this have been popping into my head. 'What's my purpose?' 'Why am I here?'.

Someone taps my shoulder, I look over to see Suki.

"Hey."

"Hey" I respond.

We stand in silence before she speaks up. "I was just coming over to say goodnight."

"Oh, goodnight." I respond smiling for a quick moment, until it fades into an indifferent frown.

"What are you thinking about?" She asks.

I'm quiet. I guess I can share these thoughts with people.

"You know, the world, and how it works. The future. Stuff like that."

She laughs quietly. "That's what's been keeping you so preoccupied lately?" She questions tilting her head.

Well I guess that excuse works. "Yeah, I guess."

Suki pulls me into a hug. "Don't worry about that Katara, live in the now." She smiles before walking off.

"Live in the now huh?" I mutter while I begin to think about my mother. How could I possibly live in the now, when the past keeps being brought up to me?

That painful past.

…..

I lay in my bed and fall I into what I can assume will be a haunting sleep, when the next thing I know we are waken to the sound of bombs and explosions.

….

**So, if you haven't realized the next chapter will be the big 'Southern Raiders' chapter. I will probably cut it into two parts but we will see. )The Zutara can finally begin muahaha)Once again, I apologize for my absence, but with my CAHSEE (California High School Exit Exam) and this huge language arts project I couldn't find the time to finish this chapter which I tried to post 3 weeks ago! Hopefully you guys are still enjoying this story. Review =)**


	16. Chapter 16

Suddenly everyone is awakened by the loud noises of expulsions. I see Aang run and grab his staff, and the he shuts the doors with a sharp whip with airbending. I'm too busy watching Aang to realize the sounds of the crumbling roof falling down.

"Watch Out!" Zuko shouts, as we roll across the floor, with the debris falling from the ceiling crashing a few feet away from us. His arms and entire body are covered and hovering over mine protectively.

"What are you doing?" I ask angrily looking up at him. His golden eyes meet mine.

Calmly Zuko replies. "Keeping rocks from crushing you."

I huff. "Okay I'm not crushed you can get off me now!" I yell as I crawl out from his hold.

As Aang and Toph and the others are trying to get Appa into the cave, I notice Zuko is looking out to the attacking airships. I hear him talking back to Aang, something about a "family visit" which could on mean his crazy sister Azula is behind this attack, and then he takes off.

Aang is trying to pull Appa into the cave but he just won't move. "I can't get him to go in there, Appa hates tunnels!" he shouts. I reply to him. "Aang there's no way we can fly out there."

"We'll have to find a way." He tells me. Sokka is talking now. "We need to split up. Take the tunnel and get to the stolen airship."

I look to my father and run up to him. "No the firenation can't separate our family again." He hugs me and tells us it won't be forever.

Then we are up on Appa he flies through the outside area of the temple while being covered with a shield of rock in front to protect him. Azula attempts to bring him down, but her attempt only destroyed the shield so we escape. As I look up, a second airship appears with Zuko on top. They face off in a battle of fire when they both suddenly evenly matched with a blast off fire coming from their hands which in the end shoots them both off the airship. Appa swoops by Zuko, and I know what the right thing is to do so I reach up and grab Zuko's hand to bring him into the saddle with us.

Meanwhile Azula is still falling through the air when I hear Zuko sigh and quietly say "She's not gonna make it." At that moment I felt a bit bad, even though they may not be on the best of terms that's still his little sister. But then Azula uses her firebending to propel herself toward the wall, as she does she takes out her hair pin to save keep her held on to it. "Of course she did." He finishes. And then we continue to fly to a new hideout.

….

We're all sitting by the campfire. Everyone else seems to be enjoying themselves, happy we got away; but instead I'm angry. We left the rest of our friends, and my dad. I'm tired of running from this. I know we needed to it's just, I don't even know.

"Gee It really feels like old times again." Aang says cheerfully. To that Zuko replies. "If you really want it to feel like old times again I could uh chase you around and try to capture you for awhile." The group erupts in laughter expect for me to which I give a sarcastic "ha ha."

My brother clears his throat and raises his cup of tea. "To Zuko, who knew after all those times he tried to snuff us out, today he'd be our hero!"

"Hear Hear!" Everyone says as Toph and Aang jokingly punch Zuko's arms. He smiles. "I'm touched, I don't deserve this."

And finally I've had enough of all this. "Yeah no kidding." Then I stand up without looking at anyone and walk away to the edge of the cliff."

…..

I'm overlooking the cliff when I hear someone approaching me. I turn to see Zuko walking up to me so I just walk ever farther away.

"This isn't fair, everyone else seems to trust me now. What is it with you?" He asks.

I scoff. "Oh everyone trusts you now!" I yell furiously. "_I _was the first person to trust you remember? Back in Ba Sing Se!" I point out to the water. "And you turned around and betrayed _me _betrayed all of us!"

I see him close his eyes as he remembers the scene that took place. "What can I do to make it up to you?" He asks. He really doesn't get it. I stalk up to him and begin to snap and go off. "You really want to know? Hmm, maybe you could reconquer Ba Sing Se in the name of the Earth King". Then I just let it out, the entire truth that has been holding me against him. "Or, I know! You could bring my mother back!" I walk away bumping his shoulder in the process.

…..

I step out of my tent to which I can assume will be another day of me avoiding Zuko, when I notice someone sitting down on a rock with their heads down. Oh it's him. "You look terrible." I tell him.

"I was waiting up here all night." He replies now standing up. I walk past him and grab my brush for my hair.

"What do you want?" I asked him with annoyance clear in my voice.

He doesn't hesitate. "I know who killed your mother, and I'm going to help you find him."

I stop brushing, he said very important words at that moment. Words that have made me avoid him all this time. Does he really know who? I turn to look at him, when he explains a bit more.

…..

Aangs feeding Appa some hay when we approach. "I need to borrow Appa."

He laughs. "Why is it your turn to take a little field trip with Zuko?"

I give him a very serious look. "Yes."

He's confused and continues to ask more questions when my brother comes into the picture.

"Um... and what exactly do you think this will accomplish?" Aang asks.

I shake my head and scoff quietly. "I knew you wouldn't understand."

He steps up to me. "No, Katara I do understand. You're feeling unbelievable pain and rage, how do you think I felt when the sandbenders stole Appa, or when I learned what the firenation did to my people?"

Now Zuko is talking for me. "She needs this Aang. This is about getting closure and justice.

Aang looks to the floor and then straight back to me. "I don't think so, I think it's about getting revenge."

I stop him there, because he's right in a way. "Fine maybe it is! Maybe that's what he needs! Maybe that's what he deserves!" I spit angrily .

"Katara." He pauses. "You sound like Jet." He says quietly.

"It's not the same!" I yell back. "Jet attacked the innocent, this man.. he's a monster!"

Sokka seems to have heard enough when he decides to speak. "Katara she was my mother too."

Then I say something I know I'll regret immediately. "Then you didn't love her the way _I _did!"

"Katara." Sokka says sadly.

Aang tries again to win me over. "The monks used to say that revenge is like a two-headed rat viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you're being poisoned yourself."

Zuko replies something witty when I begin to talk. "Now that I know he's out there, now that I know he's alive I feel like I have no choice."

Aang sighs. "You do have a choice, forgiveness."

"That's the same as doing nothing!" Zuko says exactly what I was planning too.

"No its not." Aang starts. "It's easy to do nothing, but it's hard to forgive."

I'm turning around when I talk. "It's not just hard, it's impossible.

With that I leave my brother and Aang behind as Zuko follows me.

…

"So that's it?" Zuko asks me as we are walking back to my tent.

I close my eyes and sit down on a rock. "No, like I said I know he's out there, and I'm not going to let him prance around happily like he did nothing anymore."

"So what's the plan?" He replies.

…

We're packing our bags when Zuko motions to me that we should start leaving.

As I'm about to get on Appa, Aang and my brother appear.

"Don't try to stop us." I tell them.

"I wasn't planning to. This is a journey you need to take. You need to face this man. But when you do, please don't choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him." Aang tells me.

Now Zuko is speaking. "Okay, we'll be sure to do that, guru goody-goody." He says as he hops on Appa.

"Thanks Aang. Yip Yip."

And we're off.

….

Hey everyone, I'm out of school now so I can update a lot more now! Sorry for the 3 month wait, but hopefully you forgive me! As always review, thanks for reading! Also I've gotten a lot of new followers and favs on this story so thanks for that guys!


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